Cyprus is satisfied with the outcome of London's World Travel Market, but the holiday island was urged to offer more than just sun, sea and sand to compete, said Deputy Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios.
He held around 20 meetings with airlines and travels firms during the WTM – one of the world’s largest travel shows.
Perdios told CNA that what these companies asked from Cyprus was to better promote its tourism with a new brand beyond the ‘sun and sea’ model and this will be unveiled next March at Berlin’s ITB travel trade show.
He said that Cyprus has started implementing a new 10-year strategic plan for tourism to move the country’s product beyond the traditional ‘sun and sea’ offering.
The new plan seeks to attract visitors aged over 50, not a traditional pool for Cypriot tourism. It will also emphasise short breaks and attracting visitors from new markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East, America, China and Japanese.
Perdios hailed the collaboration with Greece, Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan to sell joint holiday packages such as cruises in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Diversification of Cyprus’ tourism is part of making the island a year-round travel destination.
“The extension of the tourism season is a dream for us. It was not possible to pursue such a dream without the solid foundation needed,” said Perdios.
“Over the last decade, we established the sun and sea model, which can now serve as the backbone that allows us to go for the more detailed and special forms or tourism. Already this year we will have an increase in winter arrivals of around 10% on last year.”
The ministry’s strategy is also to promote specialised forms of tourism, such as cruises, cycling, gastronomy, sports, health and wellness.
Making Cyprus an all-year destination will create jobs and boost regions that may have been left behind, such as mountainous and rural areas.
Ready for more tourists
The Deputy Minister said Cyprus is “fully ready” in terms of infrastructure to welcome more tourists, citing renovated hotels, new marinas and the integrated casino resort that will open in 2021.
Tourists arrivals for 2019 are expected to stay at last year’s level of almost 4 million, “despite challenges such as the big competition, Brexit and the default of Thomas Cook”.
Hoteliers are happy with the outcome of the World Trade Market as they were able to close many new deals and sign contracts with tour operators to cover losses caused by the demise of tour giant Thomas Cook.
General Manager of the Association of Cyprus Tourist Enterprise Chrisemily Psilogeni said at this year’s WTM, hoteliers present were actively chasing new deals.
“We have managed to sign deals with smaller tour operators, mainly operating online, who have great potential to grow. These deals will close the gap created in the UK market by Thomas Cook’s collapse.”
Hoteliers do not see a significant change in numbers of tourists expected next year as a result of swift reactions from stakeholders, Psilogeni noted that the UK market is of vital significance as British tourists visit the island almost all year round.
“However, the fact that inbound tourism from the UK has remained at the same level in recent years has led stakeholders to the conclusion that this market is saturated, pushing us to focus on other existing and new markets.”
Psilogeni said the focus will shift towards the Netherlands, France, Scandinavia and the Arab countries for the upcoming season.
Fanos Tekelas, UCLAN Cyprus lecturer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, told the Financial Mirror that stakeholders have acted to soften the blow from the collapse of Thomas Cook.
He praised the deal between the Deputy Ministry and Germany’s Condor Air, which is expected to boost arrivals from Germany by 20% while tourists from Israel have increased by 15%.
The UCLAN lecturer noted that Cyprus, while taking one blow after another over the past few years, should learn lessons from the experience and diversify its product, leaving behind the tactic of putting all of our eggs in one or two baskets.
“The memorandum between Cyprus, Greece and Israel to offer joint holiday packages is a good move in diversifying our tourist product, offering more to tourists eyeing a getaway in the Mediterranean. This will give us an advantage over other neighbouring destinations.”
However, he argued that big markets Central Europe, which could present Cyprus with great opportunities, are being neglected.
“Diversifying our product will be crucial in facing future blows like the kind delivered to our tourism by the collapse of Thomas Cook,” said Tekelas.
Meanwhile, concerns over more UK tour operators going under have been voiced. The head of the Travel Industry division at White Hart Associates, Chris Photi warned that more tour operators are in dire straits.
“This is very unfortunate, but there will be more companies going bankrupt, in the aftermath of Thomas Cook's bankruptcy,” he told audiences at the Future of Travel Selling.
Photi noted that tour operators’ costs will be going up as the Air Travel Organiser’s Licence is to see a significant increase.
ATOL is a financial insurance scheme that protects most package holidays sold by the UK travel business.
Photi said the insurance fund was designed to cover £250 mln in damages caused by bankruptcies, predicting the final cost from Thomas Cook’s demise could exceed £480 mln, which will probably lead to an increase in fees paid by firms.
