Economic Contribution of Cyprus Inbound Tourism

The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) has traditionally focused on country of origin (COO) segmentation. However, COO segmentation ignores the heterogeneity within country segments and consequently fails to give an accurate picture of economic contribution of the different tourist types visiting the island. The aim of the paper is, firstly, to explore the potential of other a priori and data-driven segmentation approaches and, secondly, to employ a methodology which uses Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs) to estimate the economic impact of these market segments. The results highlight the potential of the method to assess the impact of market segments on the island. It is envisaged that this approach could be refined through improved data collection in order to generate useful results for tourism policy.