Revenues in Cyprus's vital tourism sector sank 15.5 per cent in the first seven months of this year, official figures showed, providing more evidence of a difficult year for the island's economy.

Income from tourism, which forms around 12 per cent of gross domestic product, plunged to an estimated €798.3 million in the seven months to July from €944.8 million a year earlier.

Last month alone the drop was a slightly smaller 14.8 per cent, as revenue from holidaymakers reached €232.5 million versus €272.9 million in the same month last year.

Tourism receipts for last year as a whole fell 3.5 per cent to €1.79 billion from €1.85 billion in 2007.

Average daily spending by tourists in July was €75.6 and the average stay was 10.1 days.

Biggest spenders were Israeli visitors, splashing out €123 a day while Greeks were the most frugal, spending only €66.9 a day on average.

The disappointing revenue figures are coupled with a 10.9 per cent decrease in tourist arrivals for the first seven months.

For the whole year, the government forecasts a 10 per cent drop in tourism revenues. The fall in revenues from holidaymakers has been instrumental in the Cypriot economy going into decline.

Cyprus has technically been in recession since June, after second-quarter GDP slipped 0.5 per cent. That followed a 0.6 per cent drop in the first three months of the year.

The government has yet to change its overall GDP growth forecast of one per cent despite the worsening figures.

Bumper spending by holidaymakers helped the Mediterranean sunshine island achieve GDP growth of 4.4 per cent in 2007, easing to a 3.7 rise per cent last year.

The lion's share of visitors holidaying on Cyprus come from fellow EU countries, especially from recession-hit Britain, Greece and Germany.

Tourist numbers from Britain - the island's largest market - are down by over 20 per cent.