Cyprus is feeling the aftershocks caused by the collapse of global travel agent Thomas Cook with hotels once heavily dependent on customers from the company now in financial despair, while airfares soar.
Cyprus hoteliers have asked the state and local authorities to lend a helping hand as they find themselves heavily impacted by the demise of the once thriving tour operator.
President of tourist enterprises ACTE Akis Vavlitis said the majority of hotels depended up to 70% on Thomas Cook while a small proportion of hotels had a 100% cooperation with the historic UK travel agent.
Hotels are €50 mln out of pocket due to unpaid bills for services rendered, while 45,000 less visitors will be coming to Cyprus this winter.
Maria Kouroupi, senior manager at Hermes Airports, told CyBC radio that three companies operating under the Thomas Cook umbrella, including its Scandinavian and German subsidiaries carried some 450,000 tourists annually to Cyprus, conducting some 2,000 flights.
Up until Sunday, the three companies had carried out 1,750 flights bringing 368,000 holidaymakers to Cyprus.
The Cyprus Hoteliers Association and STEK have warned that a number of hotels are on the verge of closing, and that the island’s tourism industry is in need of a rescue plan.
Hoteliers have suggested that the state should extend the payment deadline for social security contributions and VAT.
There is also a demand for the various municipal taxes and charges to be deferred.
According to Ministry of Finance sources quoted by Stockwatch, the government is to look into the hotels requests.
Meanwhile, there are growing concerns over a possible domino effect on tourist flows from Russia as Thomas Cook owned 93% of Biblio Globus, a Russian tour operator carrying 500,000 tourists to the island annually.
There also appears to be a negative effect on airfares which are becoming much more expensive.
The Cyprus Consumers Association reported a 60-75% spike in airline tickets for October pointing out the sharp increase is not justified as this is not a peak month.
In comments to CyBC radio, the President of the association, Marios Drousiotis said that on a July 23 the association had checked airfares for flights leaving for Athens on October 14 and returning on October 20, finding that ticket prices started at €119.
Today for the same dates the price for Athens reached €191, recording an increase of over 60%.
The same goes for flights to Thessaloniki, for the same dates the price in July was €134 and now it is €223 — an increase of 66%.
To book a flight to London in July for October it cost around €197 while today the price has jumped to €345, going up 75%.
Drousiotis said that the same phenomenon occurred a year ago when Cobalt folded, saying it is not easy to fill the void created by the demise of a popular airline.
