The Cypriot government has been pursuing the inclusion of the country in China's tourist destination list published for Chinese citizens.

Speaking on Thursday after meeting here with Chinese Ambassador in Nicosia Song Aiguo, Cypriot Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Nicos Rolandis said the Cyprus request was put forward a couple of years ago and efforts in this regard have been lately intensified.

Rolandis said it is important for Cyprus to be included in China's tourist destination list and the island will benefit a lot from tourist arrivals from China.

Tourism accounts for about 20 percent of Cyprus' gross domestic production and is the island's No. 1 foreign currency earner with annual revenue reaching nearly 2 billion US dollars.

Figures, however, show that the island's tourism industry has been experiencing its worst crisis since the 1991 Gulf War.

Tourist arrivals reached 1,017,366 during the first half of 2002compared to 1,170,323 during the same period last year, recording adrop of 13.97 percent.

In July this year, the tourist arrivals were down more than 12 percent compared to the same month last year.

Another cause of the tourist decrease is believed to be the highprice of the island's tourism products.

Experts said the deteriorating tourism could lead to an impressive slowdown of the island's economic growth and a widening current account deficit.

( August 23, 2002)