.
Which insane civil servant decided to cut the promotional budget of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation by a whopping 19 mln euros? Because, in order to do this, the civil servant in question, his/her superiors, the responsible minister, the President and all members of parliament must be living on another planet and do not realize that tourism is one of the most important of all revenue earners of the economy. Actually, the sector accounts for 12% of our national economic production, or, put differently, account for 12% of all over-paid civil servants’ wages who refuse to give up some of their salaries, while everyone else is making a sacrifice in Cyprus.
The budget cut could not have come at a worse time for the tourism industry as Cyprus is competing aggressively with other destinations that are luring tourists with much lower overnight stay costs, cheaper air fares, value meals and much more. This budget would have gone a long way to place the island’s brand new advertising campaign in underground stations in London, billboards in Germany, and magazine ads in Russia and Scandinavia.
Instead of cutting 19 mln from the CTO budget, we might as well line up all the hotel owners (and their union-driven employees), give them a pistol each and ask them to shoot themselves. At least this way we won’t have to worry about bankrupt hoteliers and unemployed hotel workers as there would be less of them to become a burden on the state coffers and would thus safeguard the untouchable salaries of the thousands of unproductive public sector workers.
What we cannot understand, is why do the government-appointed CTO board members continue to stand up to this stupid government decision? Just because someone has a leaning towards the ruling coalition parties or even the opposition, does this mean they do not have an opinion to express?
The CTO budget should probably have been the only one not to undergo any cuts for 2011 and even been doubled. And MPs, that often like to prove their manhood by chopping public spending programmes, should have in this case demanded that the CTO budget be increased.
Then again, this is Cyprus and voters will go the polls like sheep in May and disregard all the stupid things that both governing and opposition parties have done so far.
So much for getting us out of the economic crisis…
