Cyprus aims to overturn 30% drop in Russian tourists

The Foreign Ministry looks set to simplify visa procedures in order to overturn the 30% drop in tourist arrivals from Russia in the past two years, hoteliers said after a meeting in Moscow Thursday.

National statistics show that tourism from Russia dropped a whopping 20.2% in 2004 and a cumulative drop of 23% in 2003/2004, mostly due to stricter E.U. visa rules that require these be issued in Russia instead of upon arrival at Larnaca or Paphos airports.

Russian tourist arrivals have almost halved in recent years, dropping from a record 146,000 in 1999 to 83,815 last year. This is contrary to general tourism trends that saw arrivals peak at 2.7 mln in 2001, dropped to 2.3 mln in 2003 and improved slightly to 2,349,000 last year, up 2% from 2003.

The Cyprus Hotel Association (Pasyxe) said that Foreign Ministry Director General Sotos Zakcheos instructed consular staff in Moscow and St. Petersburg to simplify and speed up visa application procedures.

At the same time he appealed to the representatives of Russia’s 15 leading tour operators to better utilise the electronic application system.

The meeting in Moscow was organised by Pasyxe and attended by Cyprus Tourism Organisation Chairman Photis Photiou, Pasyxe chairman Haris Loizou and General Manager Zacharias Ioannides, as well as representatives from the association of Cypriot travel agents (ACTA) and the second hoteliers’ association, STEK.

The meeting agreed that the delays to issue visas and a vast number of unjustified rejections was the main reason for the drop in tourist arrivals from Russia.

Haris Loizides praised the hard work done by the Cyprus Ambassador in Moscow, Leonidas Pantelides, who gave his personal assurance to the Russian tour operators that he would try to help resolve any such problems in the future.

Loizides added that if the Ministry instructions were fully implemented by the “front line” of consular staff in Russia, “then today’s meeting will have contributed significantly fro the Russian market to regain its share of the tourist arrivals in Cyprus.”