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UK, Poland And Israel Propel Record November Tourist Arrivals In Cyprus

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

December 17, 2025

Robust Growth In Arrivals

Cyprus has once again demonstrated the resilience of its tourism sector, with November 2025 recording a significant surge in visitor numbers. According to the state statistical service, Cystat, tourist arrivals climbed to 234,580 from 179,941 year over year—a robust 30.4 percent increase. For the period from January to November 2025, total arrivals reached 4,377,114, marking a 12 percent rise compared to the same period in 2024.

Key Markets Driving Growth

The United Kingdom continues to be the principal contributor to Cyprus’ tourism industry, constituting 22.7 percent of arrivals with 53,267 visitors. Poland and Israel followed closely as the second and third largest markets, contributing 13.2 percent (30,983 visitors) and 11.4 percent (26,816 visitors) respectively. Germany contributed 10.4 percent with 24,361 tourists, while Greece accounted for 6 percent with 13,965 arrivals.

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Market-specific gains were particularly notable from Austria, where arrivals more than doubled to 6,948, and Romania, which nearly doubled to 5,875 visitors. Poland, Germany, and Israel experienced impressive annual increases of 52.4 percent, 48.3 percent, and 42.3 percent respectively, in stark contrast to a 12.8 percent decline in arrivals from Greece.

Outbound Travel Trends And Economic Impact

Holiday travel remains the dominant motive for visiting Cyprus, with leisure trips accounting for 72.0 percent of arrivals in November 2025—up from 64.5 percent in the previous year. Visits to friends and relatives comprised 13.1 percent, and business travel accounted for 14.4 percent. This shift highlights a growing appeal of Cyprus as a year-round destination that caters to both leisure and professional engagements.

Cypriot outbound travel also saw a substantial increase. A total of 137,210 residents returned from trips abroad in November 2025, up from 120,248 in November 2024, a 14.1 percent rise. Greece was the primary destination for returning residents, representing 30.9 percent (42,442 individuals), followed by the United Kingdom at 9.7 percent (13,286 travelers) and Italy at 4.5 percent (6,114 returns). Holiday travel remained prevalent among Cypriot travelers abroad, constituting 65.9 percent of departures, while business-related travel made up 31.5 percent.

These detailed insights, derived from comprehensive passenger surveys at Larnaca and Paphos airports and administrative data from all legal entry and exit points in government-controlled areas, reaffirm the strategic importance of the tourism sector in driving economic activity in Cyprus. The impressive upward trend not only supports local employment and consumption but also solidifies Cyprus’ position as a dynamic hub in the global tourism market.

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Google Cloud Outage Disrupts Banking And Digital Services Across The UK

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 20, 2026

A power outage at a Google Cloud data centre near London disrupted services across the UK on Tuesday, affecting banks, businesses and other digital platforms. Google said the incident was caused by a power event at its cloud operations, with full recovery expected by around 1300 GMT.

The disruption began at 0608 GMT and affected Google Cloud services in the europe-west2 region, which is hosted in London. In an initial update, the company reported elevated error rates and intermittent network failures across multiple services as engineers worked to restore operations.

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Banking Services Hit By The Disruption

Revolut was among the most visibly affected companies, with customers reporting problems with ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and card top-ups. A source close to the matter linked the issues to the Google Cloud outage.

Traditional banks also reported disruptions. Lloyds said some customers were experiencing problems with its app and online banking, while HSBC confirmed difficulties accessing its services. HSBC added that it was monitoring the situation and noted that other organisations were affected as well.

Disruption Spreads Beyond Finance

Downdetector, which tracks online service disruptions, recorded hundreds of reports involving other businesses, including property website Rightmove and the Royal Mail postal service. The reports suggested that the outage was affecting multiple parts of the UK’s digital economy.

The incident highlights the risks facing businesses that depend on shared cloud infrastructure. Even a temporary failure at a single provider can disrupt services across several sectors, from banking and payments to logistics and consumer platforms.

Companies Reassure Customers

Revolut said it had been working to resolve the issue since it was identified and apologised to affected customers. The company also confirmed that customers’ money and data remained safe.

As cloud platforms underpin an increasing share of digital commerce, the outage illustrates how disruptions to critical infrastructure can spread far beyond the provider itself, affecting businesses and customers across the economy.