TRAVEL: Cyprus to promote German market after loss of tourists

Nicosia has approved measures to compensate for the significant loss of tourists from Germany expected this summer after the collapse of airlines Germania, Cobalt and Air Berlin.

Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios said after Wednesday’s cabinet meeting that the government has decided on several actions to promote Cyprus in the German market in an effort to make up for lost ground.

He said the messages he received from the Berlin Trade and Tourism Fare were not encouraging as the German market is dominated by a general sense of insecurity, with tourist arrivals from the country expected to halve.

Cyprus expects around 50,000 fewer Germans since Germania’s bankruptcy, but he expressed optimism this figure could be mitigated to 30,000 via government incentives.

A 189,200 Germans visited Cyprus last year, a 0.2% increase on 2017, surpassing Greece as the island’s fourth largest market.

Government efforts have also been hindered by the latest development regarding Boeing 777 Max aircrafts. “With these aircrafts being grounded, the number of available planes has decreased,” said Perdios.

Cyprus believes it can minimize the impact while “messages we are receiving from the Ukrainian market are encouraging. It seems that we will be able to make up for part of the losses from the German market with an increase in tourist flow from Ukraine”.

Without going into to detail on what measures were decided by the Cabinet, Perdios said the government is also cooperating with the private sector to attract tourists from new markets such as Ukraine, Lebanon and Israel.

He said the aim was for the measures to start paying off this summer for the country to maintain the high number of tourist arrivals in previous years.