The Cyprus tourism sector regained its strength again in July with an increase in arrivals of 8.5% over the year earlier, according to the Statistical Service, Cystat, having dipped by 1.5% in June.

On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 414,527 in July 2015, up from 381,955 in July 2014.

Britons were a key reason for the increase, with arrivals from the UK soaring by 22.5% to 155,183 in July 2015, from 127,152 a year earlier, followed by Russians with 96,085 arrivals in July.

Meanwhile, Cyprus is furthering efforts to sweeten welcome packages for citizenship by investment clients:

The investment programme of Cyprus is a ‘direct citizenship’ programme, one of the few programmes in the world where citizenship can be obtained in as little as three months, against a significant but relatively simple to make investment. The government of Cyprus has recently revised its taxation framework and it now offers tax free profits for non-domiciled investors. The Cyprus Tax Update has introduced the status of a ‘non-domicile’ individual,

This revision exempts such persons from the Special Defence Contribution Tax, which is currently 30 per cent on interest income and 17 per cent on dividend income, In addition, there has been a reduction of transfer fees on real estate transactions by 50 per cent until the end of 2016.

Investors are exempted from capital gains tax on any real estate transaction, provided that the acquisition is between the date of entry into force of the law and December 31, 2016.

Further fiscal sweeteners are being planned.

Details on the Cyprus Direct Citizenship Program can be found here: http://www.roeth.co/#!cyprus/cvo1 Why Cyprus?

An advantage of having a Cypriot citizenship is that it accounts for EU citizenship, which means freedom of movement, work and study in the EU zone.

The Cyprus passport allows visa free travel to 151 countries, including Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore.

In addition, citizenship is granted to the applicant and family under the same investment amount.