CYPRUS: Tourism benefits outweigh eco cost impact

The positive economic and tax benefits to Cyprus from tourism is estimated at €84 per visitor per night, according to a study by PwC and The Travel Foundation, adding that these far outweigh the negative environmental (-€4) and social (- €0.2) costs.

Nevertheless, the study said that these figures concern only one year (2013) and do not take into consideration the construction cost of hotels. Moreover, many social and environmental repercussions are expected to accumulate in time.
Greenhouse gases constitute the most significant environmental cost that is estimated at €2.50 per customer. The repercussions of greenhouse gas emissions more than double if flights to and from Cyprus are also included.
The most significant social benefit acknowledged in all social impact fields relates to professional training, estimated at €6.47 per overnight stay, at most. This demonstrates the importance of the tourism sector in developing skills among Cypriot employees, particularly because of the current state of the Cyprus economy.
Placing students in the work place in cases where work experience constitutes a precondition to acquire a degree is the biggest social impact per person (€8,800 per student). However, the study notes that the relatively small general impact was mainly the result of the small number of Cypriot students who are integrated into the employment programmes of each hotel.
The study, carried out in Cyprus for the first time, measured and evaluated the impact of 60,000 tourists, clients of the travel firm TUI at eight hotels in Cyprus in 2013, using the “Total Impact Measurement and Management” (TIMM) methodology of PwC.
This method also covers the wider repercussions resulting from the supply chain, as well as the expenditure of clients and employees, which when combined almost always exceed the direct impact of hotels.

The study is available at http://www.pwc.com.cy/cyprus-tourism-impact