Cypriot Hoteliers optimistic over 2011 tourist prospects

The Cyprus Hotel Association (CHA) has expressed optimism over tourist prospects for 2011.

Haris Loizides, President of CHA, appealed today to the government to revise its decision not to extend the measures on tourism which expire at the end of the year, as a ''basic precondition'' to keep tourism on an upward course in 2011.

Addressing the Association's extraordinary General Assembly, Loizides reviewed 2010 as a two-faced season; the start of the season with adverse prospects, the subsequent losses in tourist arrivals in the first half of the year and the positive results in terms of arrivals and revenue at the year's end.

According to Cyprus' Statistical Service, tourist arrivals in Cyprus rose 1.8 per cent in the first 11 months of 2010. Tourist arrivals have been following an upward trend in the second half of the year after a 10.9% plunge in 2009.

''We are at a transitional phase. Collective action has managed to turn the -11% concerning tourist arrivals in 2009 to a borderline +1.7% in 2010 and the -17% concerning income from tourism to +4% so far this year. We are at a stage in which our own actions will determine whether we will obtain an upward momentum or we will return to the dark times of 2009,'' he stressed.

He described the effort to overturn the downturn in tourist arrivals in Cyprus in the closing months of 2010 as ''100-meter sprint race,'' pointing out that ''now we must turn the sprint to a marathon''.

However he said that the basic precondition for positive prospects in 2011 is the continuation of the government's measures to support tourism, which expire in 2010.

''The expiry of these measures, in combination with the closure of Eurocypria and the seasonal nature of the Cypriot tourist industry, which leads an increasing number of hotels to close for the winter, should concern the competent authorities. Despite the ups and downs observed in the Cypriot tourism, we believe that everybody is aware that tourism will never cease to constitute the life line of the Cypriot economy,'' he concluded.