CYPRUS GOURMET: Bargains? You’ve got to be joking!

.

I am forced to say that in many contacts I have made in the past few weeks I have heard little else but grumbles about the absence of customers and the general down-turn in business. “We have cut our advertising and promotions budget” is a phrase I have heard many times. Restaurants open at lunch times, but empty, offer only their standard menu. Wine distributors and retailers make no special offers, nor do they suggest budget-priced drinking. Hotels, with a few tourists rattling around half empty spaces, make no attempt to lure people in with a set-meal, or other special offer.
It seems inertia rules. In the past Cyprus had crises, usually caused by disturbances not far away, but always a new wave of investors or tourists came to fill the gaps.
But this time, the crisis is global and there is no white knight on the horizon to save us. We cannot wait and hope that “it will get better soon”. We have to market our way out of our difficulties. We have to get one word out of the closet, dust it off and use it…
“VALUE”
Look at this cover from the current issue of a most-respected American magazine. It is entirely devoted to wine that is good value for money. America, despite its trillions of dollars of debt, is still a great market and this issue is just one demonstration that businesses there will market their way out of the crisis.
Will we? Not if stories like this prevail. A visitor staying at one of our top hotels asked me the other day: “Why does the hotel charge me €25 for a bottle of local wine I see in the supermarkets at €5?” He went out every night to a taverna where the same wine cost him €12. Better, but still excessive.
If you doubt me, go to places that are giving value – they’re busy. See the LISTINGS on our website (www.cyprus-gourmet.com) for those we think are giving good value for money. I’d like to hear about more. Email me at: [email protected]