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Cyprus may have enjoyed three seasons of record growth in tourist arrivals, with total income also at best-ever levels, however, certain factors may contribute to a slowdown in these figures if the right measures are not taken.
A key number that should not be underestimated is the per capita spend of tourists that retreated by about 5% or nearly 34 euros per person last year.
The annual hoteliers’ congress held this week touched upon these and other worrying signals of a downturn, including the rising cost of air-fuel and a shrinking airline business with some of the island’s best providers collapsing in recent months.
The main rival destinations of Egypt and Turkey are enjoying a “tourism comeback” and will be the darlings of tour operators this year, driven mainly by lower costs in travel, hotels and food, while Greece is also headed for another record year.
Cyprus is once again seen as uncompetitive and above budget, added to the exchange rate dilemma that mainly British vacationers worry about, with hoteliers rekindling their interest to return to “quality tourism”, vying for bigger spenders and niche markets interested in sports and religious tourism, as well as other novelties.
The hoteliers this week also discussed the introduction of energy saving measures and keeping the environment clean, key points that get high ratings on travellers’ comments.
On the other hand, the turn to “quality tourism” should not become an excuse for retailers and vendors to charge an arm and a leg for a small bottle of water, or a burger at a 5-star hotel sold at the price of a bottle of champagne.
The resort towns have done well to clean up their promenades and build infrastructure, but with the commendable exception of Paphos, the public bus networks in other towns have a long way to go to gain the trust of tourists as an affordable mode of transport, especially as taxi drivers have become daylight robbers with their fares and attitudes and nobody seems to care less.
With the introduction of the Deputy Ministry for Tourism, the old Cyprus Tourism Organisation is supposed to have undergone a major facelift and restructuring, the results of which we are yet to see. Perhaps, less talk of “strategic planning” and more tangible changes, such as the introduction of tourist police, would be better appreciated by vacationers, tour operators and even locals.
The primary task of the tourist police would be to act as ‘first responders’ in resort areas and be able to help holidaymakers, even those with the most trivial of questions, while patrols are desperately needed on Larnaca’s Phinikoudes strip to clamp down on the intolerable and lax situation of hyped-up teens on electric scooters, not yet old enough to ride a proper moped, dangerously whizzing through crowds and on pavements, giving the town a bad name.
Giving more incentives to airlines to bring passengers and launching cruise tourism are all good measures, but not enough on their own to counter all the negative measures that we have ignored these years, riding the wave of record arrivals and forgetting to look back and fix our problems.
