Property sales in Spain plummeted by -36.1% in March when compared with a year earlier, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).
Official data in February also showed a -24.4% drop in property sales year-on-year. In March, there were 180,075 urban property transactions which is a -31.9% decline year-on-year and a -15.7% drop when compared to the previous month. INE believes that both figures could have been affected by the timing of the Easter holiday this year.
In addition, home loans declined by -41.9% in March from a year earlier to €9.975bn.
Statistical Service figures issued on 23 April confirmed the progress of the tourism industry in 2008, showing that arrivals in the first quarter totaled 228,962, 4.4 per cent up on the same period last year.
Revenue from tourism in January-March reached 2143.2 million, an increase of 1.8 per cent on the first quarter of 2007.Less positively, the figures revealed that average expenditure per tourist in Cyprus fell to 2622.3 in March 2008 compared with 2656.6 in March 2007. (more…)
The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) has reportedly been given the go ahead from the EU to provide support to airlines to introduce new routes to the island. The move from the EU and the Cypriot government is part of a strategy to bring in more tourists to help boost its flagging industry.“It’s a new scheme and it’s a transparent one, which is applicable to all European airlines, not just low-cost carriers,” said CTO director general Phoebe Katsouri in an interview with the Cyprus Mail. (more…)