Meetings with UK tour operators and airlines on the occasion of the World Travel Market (WTM) in London have left Cyprus’s tourism officials “cautiously optimistic” about prospects for 2014, the Minister for Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Giorgos Lakkotrypis said.
Speaking at a press conference at the ExCel centre in east London, Lakkotrypis expressed his satisfaction with the results of his meetings with tourism professionals on Monday and Tuesday. “We are leaving the WTM with cautious optimism as regards 2014. Everything shows that we will be able to maintain the number of tourists from the UK, which was our primary aim. We even hope to have a small increase in numbers next year. Following this we will be able to also achieve the necessary increase in arrivals from countries that have recorded a rapid growth for us in the last two to three years,” said the Minister.
Referring to the impressions of the tour operators as expressed during his talks with them, he noted that they consider Cyprus to be a “mature” tourist market, with much improved services. At the same time though, he added, they believe Cyprus has difficulties in competing with new destinations that have grown in recent years, especially in the Mediterranean region.
“Our effort and what we have agreed with them is to extend the tourist season. Not necessarily to achieve a 12-month long season immediately but to at least add a few weeks on either side of it. As the operators themselves told us, this is not solely a Cypriot problem. Most of the European destinations suffer from the seasonality issue and this is in part due to the fact that the British market has started favouring destinations such as the Caribbean, as we were repeatedly told,” said Lakkotrypis.
Asked by CNA whether developing alternative “thematic” tourism could contribute to the season extension, he noted that many of the tour operators made reference to thematic tourism in Cyprus. “There have been some areas of thematic tourism identified on which we will work together. For instance, how we can approach more golfers, more bikers. We also discussed religious tourism. There are three-four areas where we will attribute the appropriate emphasis,” said the minister. He added that efforts to build more golf courses, more marinas and a casino resort fall within these attempts to enrich the tourism product of Cyprus and make the country more competitive.
Giorgos Lakkotrypis was also invited by CNA to explain how recent developments in Cyprus’s economy have affected the budget for the promotion and development of the country’s tourism. He replied that the budget for 2014 is currently being carefully considered, commenting that all government departments will be affected one way or another by the huge pressure on the public finances and the need to save 700m euros next year. “Nevertheless, there will be emphasis given on one of the most important industries of Cyprus, which is tourism,” he noted.
The ministry’s and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation’s target for 2014 is to maintain the number of arrivals from more mature market, such as the UK, and record significant increases in influx of tourists from countries that have performed extremely well in terms of arrivals recently.
“Our overall target for 2014 is to have an increase of around 10% in arrivals, compared to 2013,” explained Lakkotrypis. He stressed that although arrivals in 2013 have been lower than 2012, during these last months they have picked up significantly, with revenue increasing even more, due to a “different mix” of visitors who spend more. The minister also spoke of expectations of a significant rise in tourists from Russia, Ukraine and Scandinavia, with Russian visitors reaching 600,000 this year.
Responding to an observation that many consider Cyprus to be an expensive destination, he commented that “maybe we don’t want to be a cheap destination”, as long as the services provided to the visitors are of high quality, adding value for money.
Lakkotrypris also referred to the “very warm” meeting with his Greek counterpart, Minister of Tourism Olga Kefalogianni at the premises of the World Travel Market. He revealed that they have agreed to a closer cooperation between the two national tourism organisations, which potentially includes joint packages for visitors, especially from long-haul origin countries. The two ministers agreed to meet again in the next couple of months either in Nicosia or Athens.
