Fifteen per cent of Cypriots never leave the island! And Cyprus tops the list of EU countries from which people rarely travel abroad. ALIX NORMAN asks why

Only 40 per cent of Americans have a passport. In Japan, that figure falls to 24 per cent. In Cyprus, on the other hand, you’d likely have to travel to the far reaches of the Troodos villages to find someone sans passport.

But then this is a tiny nation. The Republic is basically the same size as Delaware – the second smallest US state after Rhode Island. And while Cyprus is frequently glorified as a place of wild diversity (‘Soaring mountains! Golden beaches! Ancient ruins!’), we certainly don’t have the variety of landscapes or weather as the bigger nations. Here, if it’s sunny in Latsia, odds are it’s sunny in Limassol. Plus, we’re an island. You can’t just hop on a train if you feel like a snow day!

So what about Europeans? Are they as ill-travelled as their Occidental and Oriental counterparts? Well, though we may think of our continental cousins as international travellers – jet-setting Italians, bureaucratic Belgians, or burnt British vacationers – a recent study suggests that just 37 per cent of Europeans go abroad at least once a year. And amongst that, we get 63 per cent of Bulgarians, 59 per cent of Hungarians, and 57 per cent of Romanians who never travel outside their country!

You can understand these three nations being stay-at-homes. Relatively low income, a unique language and culture, and plenty of scenic variety make trips abroad redundant. By comparison, just 15 per cent of those born in Cyprus have never left the country; a number that’s dwindling with the years.

On the other hand, almost 40 per cent of those in Cyprus travel abroad at least once a year (far fewer than the EU residents of Luxembourg, 80 per cent of whom leave the country every 12 months; and the 78 per cent of exploratory Dutch who like to get out and see the world). And the same number of Brits like to get out of their home country each year: 4 in 10 Brits leave the UK at least once per year, probably to descend, en masse, on the beaches of the Costa del Sol, the Algarve, and Napa!

But where Cyprus residents are unique is in the number of people who seldom (as opposed to frequently or never) leave the island. Forty eight per cent of us (by far the highest in Europe), prefer to stay at home. Apparently, the fact that we all speak English and that our choice of local outing is basically beach or mountains is not enough to get us on a plane more often than every few years!

Granted, Covid did throw its viral spanner in the works for a while. But that’s still almost half the population who, though they’ve travelled abroad at least once in their lives, certainly haven’t done so in the last 12 months. Which got us wondering. Why? What are the reasons people don’t leave Cyprus? Or, at least, why haven’t they left in the last few years?

“Military service!” says 49-year-old Luke. “I may be Cypriot by birth, but I grew up in the UK and never had to do the army. Since I arrived here at the age 43, I haven’t left.”

Marriage, family and job kept Luke busy for the first few years. “But by the time I was ready to spread my wings, military service had been digitised; my friends in a similar situation started getting caught at the airport, and I just didn’t want to waste months of my life in the army, or be called into the reservists.”

For Rami, it’s an issue of child support. Lebanese by birth, he’s lived in Cyprus all his life, and holds a Cypriot passport. What he doesn’t have is a steady job, and that’s affecting his right to travel. “I have three children with two different women,” explains the 34-year-old. “But I’m not in a position to pay the court-appointed child support.”

In consequence, Rami has been both to court and jail. “I’ve been told I can’t leave the country until I’m up to date on payments. Nobody wants to hire someone who’s been to jail, so I guess I’m stuck here.”

Money is also the issue for 53-year-old Sri Lankan Kumari, though her circumstances are vastly different. Like many domestic workers, holidays are not an option for this Nicosia maid who has worked 12 years without a break to support her family in Anuradhapura.

“Cyprus is too hot. And not green!” she says. “I miss my children. Now I have three grandchildren too. Sometimes we talk on the computer, but they do not know me. Next year, I will have enough money to go back to Sri Lanka for a month in April. I will be happy!”

For Limassolian Georgia, it’s anxiety that’s keeping her on the island. “I’ve always had a fear of flying,” says the 48-year-old researcher, “but it’s got worse recently. When I hit my 40s, my health deteriorated. That fed into my mental state, and I was diagnosed with generalised and social anxiety. At this point, there’s nothing that would get me on a plane!”

Unmarried and childless, Georgia admits she has “little incentive to leave the island; it’s not like I have family abroad. And to be honest, just pottering round my garden and working from home is enough for me most days. Short of an utter catastrophe, why do I need to leave Cyprus?”

As for Aphrodite, well, leaving Cyprus is no longer an option for this 90-year-old. “I left once, when I was in my 50s,” the former resident of Ergates recalls. “My husband died; I went to London. I stayed with my son and his family for a month.”

While Aphrodite enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren in their own home – “their Greek was bad!” she exclaims. “My English was bad too, it is difficult” – it’s not a trip she ever felt the need to repeat. “Everything is fast. The people, the trains, the shops, the language – London is too fast. I wanted to come home all the time. There is no country like Cyprus. I have everything here. I decided I will never leave again.”

Some names have been changed to protect the anonymity of interviewees