* ‘Happy, but more needs to be done,’ say industry stakeholders
While tourists appear to be leaving Cyprus happier than in earlier years, with the number of official complaints getting less, more needs to be done to tackle problems undermining efforts to enhance the tourist product, stakeholders have said.
Complaints continue to come in regarding services at restaurants and hotels, airports, beaches and other public areas or facilities, but Cyprus seems to be doing better than previous years as the number of complaints has dropped significantly.
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According to the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, while complaints in 2014 totalled 207, they dropped to 145 last year, and only 51 complaints were recorded in the first eight months of this year.
CTO Chairman Angelos Loizou said that taking into account that the number of tourist arrivals is increasing and the number of complaints has dropped, then the island is on the right track to eliminate bad behaviour and poor service by tourist enterprises.
“The fact that complaints are dropping is a good indication that we are moving in the right direction, and this is due to the combined efforts of all stakeholders. However, there is much to be done to entirely eradicate problems that cause distress to holiday makers”, Loizou told the Financial Mirror.
In this direction, he pointed out the need for a coordinated platform where tourists can file their complaints so that stakeholders can address the issues by correcting weaknesses.
Loizou said that such a platform could be centralized with the contribution of all stakeholders, starting from the government authorities, local authorities, restaurants and hotels.
“Each group should set up their own platform to deal with complaints and mishaps within their own sector. Restaurant owners, for example, could have their own platform to investigate and in the end provide remedies as regards service, prices or other issues”, the CTO chairman said.
Dinos Kakouras, Managing Director of Top Kinisis, one of the country’s leading tour operators, said that complaints regarding services at tourist venues continue to come in, although to a lesser extent than previous years.
“Despite serious efforts to reduce complaints, some points still need to be fine-tuned,” said Kakouras. He said that such issues could be resolved with further training and raising awareness over damage caused by poor standard service.
“Authorities could offer more training to people involved in the sector, whether employees or managers and owners of establishments like hotels and restaurants”, he said.
The Managing Director of Top Kinisis added that stakeholders need to be more aware of the impact that bad service has on their business and the tourist product as a whole, as tourists publicly post any mishaps online highlighting their dissatisfaction with a certain establishment or the entire island.
Agreeing with Loizou’s proposal for complaints platforms, Kakouras suggested that enterprises and local authorities make use of tools which are already at their disposal.
“Tourists often leave comments about their visit to the island and places they have visited. Using applications such as TripAdvisor, they rate our tourist product as a whole, as well individual establishments such as hotels and restaurants”, explained Kakouras. He said that tourists, locals or visitors, prefer to go online and ‘expose’ any bad service they receive at an establishments rather than to report it through the official channels to a local authority.
He said that stakeholders must use these ratings and comments to improve their product and services. “The same goes for municipalities. Following tourist comments could help local authorities locate areas with noise pollution and cleanliness issues and resolve them before they get out of hand”, Kakouras added.
Phanos Leventis, the General Secretary of the Leisure and Entertainment Establishment Owners Association, said that restaurant owners are taking measures to reduce complaints.
“All serious business owners are trying to upgrade their services as they know that the word will get around. A significant part of restaurant owners are following ratings and comments left online regarding their establishment,” said Leventis.
“A serious businessperson will not want to create a bad name for his establishment online” he said.
