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2025 Sets New Benchmark For Cypriot Tourism: Record Arrivals And Revenue Surge

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

February 27, 2026

Record-Breaking Arrivals And Revenue

Cyprus’ tourism sector reached record levels in 2025, with arrivals exceeding 4.5 million for the first time, according to Deputy Tourism Minister Kostas Koumis. Speaking in an interview on February 26, 2026, Koumis said arrivals increased 12.2% compared with 2024 and 41.6% over three years.

Tourism revenue rose 15.3% year over year during the January–November period, while growth over three years reached 51.1%. Average spending per visitor increased to €822 from €799 in 2024, and daily spending rose 7.2% to €99.5.

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The average length of stay declined by 4% to 8.27 days, but overnight stays are projected to reach 18.5 million, up 3.3% from 2024.

Enhanced Product Quality And Strategic Incentives

Tourism contributed 14% to Cyprus’ GDP in 2025, up from 13.1% a year earlier, reinforcing its role as a key economic sector. Officials estimate overall economic growth at 3.75% for 2025, above the eurozone average.

Between 2023 and 2025, tourism revenues totaled €9.9 billion. During the 2022–2025 period, policy focus shifted toward restoring sector performance and upgrading tourism quality through targeted incentive programs.

In 2025, the ministry launched 13 incentive schemes, including four funded under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, with total funding approaching €20 million. Key measures included:

153 projects aimed at supporting rural, mountainous, and remote areas, with budgets of up to €7 million.
Upgrades to 48 hotels and tourist accommodations, totaling up to €6.9 million in investment.
€1.3 million allocated to improve dining venues and retail outlets promoting traditional products.
Seven approved projects in health and wellness tourism worth about €1.2 million

Additional initiatives included digital transformation programs, support for conferences and sporting events, dive certification projects, beach upgrades, and workshops promoting traditional crafts and local products.

Strategic Initiatives And Specialized Tourism

The Ministry of Tourism is updating the National Tourism Strategy 2035 and relaunching the tour guide training program after a seven-year pause. Digital application processes developed with TEPAK aim to improve visitor experience and operational efficiency.

In specialized tourism, authorities completed a three-dimensional mapping of diving sites and conducted a dedicated study on dive tourism. Future research will focus on health tourism, as well as nature and rural tourism.

Agritourism recorded more than 90,000 arrivals in 2025, up 3% year over year and 40.9% over three years. Cruise tourism also expanded, with passenger numbers rising 104% to 278,000 compared with 136,000 in 2024.

Cypriot EU Presidency And Legislative Initiatives

As Cyprus prepares for its EU Council Presidency in 2026, officials expect more than 30,000 conference participants and the organization of around 250 events.

The ministry is preparing policy proposals linked to the European tourism agenda, including Council Conclusions on Tourism planned for May 2026. Legislative initiatives include draft regulations for dive tourism and proposals to modernize licensing rules for food and entertainment venues.

Cyprus has also signed memoranda of understanding with Israel and Saudi Arabia aimed at strengthening tourism cooperation and supporting long-term sector growth.

The Future Forbes Realty Global Properties

by News Editor

August 24, 2026

Courts Are Still Applying Old Copyright Rules To AI

AI companies train models on enormous amounts of published material, including books, articles and academic research. Whether using that content without authors’ permission violates copyright law remains unresolved.

Much of the debate centres on fair use, which allows copyrighted material to be used without permission in certain circumstances. Courts consider factors such as the purpose of the use, how much material was involved and its impact on the original market.

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Anthropic Case Sets An Important Precedent

A major case involving Anthropic and a group of authors provided one of the clearest rulings so far. Judge William Alsup found that using copyrighted books to train AI models was lawful, comparing the process to people reading and studying literature before creating something new.

Anthropic was nevertheless ordered to pay $1.5 billion in a settlement. The penalty concerned books the company had obtained from illegal online libraries rather than the AI training itself.

For AI companies, that distinction could prove significant because it separates studying copyrighted material from directly copying it.

Competition Could Be The Key Issue

A case involving Thomson Reuters and Ross Intelligence offers a different perspective. A court ruled that Ross could not claim fair use after using Reuters’ copyrighted material to develop a competing AI-powered legal research platform.

The decision suggests courts may be less willing to consider AI training fair use when copyrighted content is used to build a product that directly competes with the original.

For authors, an unresolved question is whether AI-generated content should be considered competition for the works used to train these models.

The Law Has Yet To Catch Up

US copyright law predates generative AI by decades, leaving courts to apply old principles to new technology. Questions also remain over copyright protection for AI-generated works. In Thaler v. Perlmutter, a court ruled that material created entirely by AI cannot receive copyright protection.

Major AI companies remain involved in copyright litigation, and different courts could reach different conclusions. For now, there is no universal rule: the legality of AI training will depend on the circumstances of each case and how courts ultimately interpret copyright and fair use.