Cyprus President Demetris Christofias called on Wednesday for joint action for tourism as state revenues from tourist sector decline.
Addressing the General Assembly of the Association of Cyprus Travel Agents, Christofias assured that the government in cooperation with all stakeholders will continue efforts to support tourism and will not hesitate to take swift and well-thought decisions for the benefit of the Cypriot tourist industry and the economy.
Recalling the government's 52-million-euro plan to boost tourism in the mid of the global financial crisis, Christofias said that regardless of the measures taken, the basic condition for success in the tourist field is the maximization of respect both from foreigners and Cypriot tourists.''
The President said that the picture from tourism so far is not satisfying as state revenues from tourism for the period of January April 2009 declined by 7,5%, while tourist arrivals decreased by 8.9%.
''Now is the time to work together to cut the losses of the crisis provided that we learn from the omissions of the past and move together towards the right direction,'' he concluded.
Addressing the Assembly, Victor Mantovani, President of ACTA, said although Cypriot tourism ''gained some ground,'' due to the government plan to boost tourism, state support to tourism compared with other destinations competitive to Cyprus is ''inadequate.''
He proposed the creation of a more flexible decision-making body, comprising Cyprus Tourist Organization, private tourist businesspeople the Cyprus Airways which would solely deal with marketing and promotion of the island to foreign markets, while the CTO would retain the legal framework and its supervising role.
According to Mantovani, Cyprus' biggest problem comes from the big increase of tourist infrastructure in competitive destinations and their relatively low operative costs giving them the opportunity for more competitive offers to country's from which Cyprus traditionally attracts tourists.
Mantovani added that Antalya, Turkey and the Red Sea are currently Cyprus biggest competitors, noting that although the UK will continue to be Cyprus' biggest tourist partner and Russia presents big opportunities for the future, there are big prospects from countries such as Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as emerging markets.
''We should forget about far-away countries regardless of their size because the basic tourist principle to attract tourism is direct air connection,'' he concluded.
