COVID19: Cyprus only expects 30% of last year’s tourists

Cyprus should lower its expectations from tourism in 2020 as it will only get 30% of the nearly four million tourists that came last year due to coronavirus, said Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios.

Talking at a tourism conference, Perdios said that undoubtedly this will be a very difficult year for the sector, with the epidemiological situation in Cyprus and in countries which it traditionally receives tourists, playing a decisive factor.

Perdios told the conference entitled “Tourism: the big bet for Cyprus and Greece,” that 50% of tourists are expected to come from the traditional big markets of the UK and Russia, 35% from Germany, Scandinavia, Israel and Greece while the remaining 15% will be local tourists.

Also speaking at the conference were Harris Loizides, Chairman of the Cyprus Hotels Association, Vasilis Stamataris, president of the Association of Cyprus Travel Agents and Theodoros Thalassinos head of the Greek Tourism Organisation for Cyprus.

Loizides said hoteliers were waiting for the government to announce new measures and incentives which would allow for more hotels to open.

Stamataris said Cypriots are interested in a holiday in Greece, he expected to see outgoing tourism to pick up speed in July and August.

Thalassinos hoped that travel between Greece and Cyprus would pick up with a need to plan for the post-pandemic landscape with joint tourist packages and pushing for a passenger ferry link between the two countries.