Four in five British Turkish Cypriots travelling to Cyprus are choosing to fly to Larnaca or Paphos airport rather than the north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport, Turkish Cypriot opposition party CTP ‘MP’ Sami Ozuslu said on Saturday.
He cited figures released earlier this month which showed that just 14,237 British nationals had arrived in the north by air and sea in the first half of the year, with this number including 4,494 British Turkish Cypriots.
He then pointed out that 568,811 British nationals had been recorded as having arrived in the Republic over the same time period.
“In other words, this is 40 times more than those who came to Ercan!” he said.
He added that during those six months, around 142,000 British nationals who had arrived in the Republic crossed to the north, and that this figure included around 19,000 British Turkish Cypriots.
“In other words, only one out of every five Turkish Cypriots living in the UK and coming to the island chose Ercan. Eighty per cent preferred Larnaca or Paphos airport,” he said.
He also pointed out the low rate of British nationals travelling to the north who actually stayed overnight in hotels.
“In the fist six months of 2024, only 11,000, that is, only seven per cent, of the 156,000 British citizens who somehow came to northern Cyprus stayed in tourist facilities.
“We can assume that [British Turkish Cypriots] mostly stay in houses belonging to themselves or their families, and we can take into account that some British people stay in rented houses here, but if around 25,000 British Cypriots and 130,000 British people come to the north, but the rate of those staying in hotels is so low, we have serious problems,” he said.
