Cyprus tourism has suffered a “serious blow” following the collapse of British travel group Thomas Cook that stranded 15,000 tourists on the island with future lost revenue close to €200 mln.
Tourism Deputy Minister Savvas Perdios 250,000 tourists visited Cyprus annually on Thomas Cook packages spending €188 mln.
“This is a serious blow to tourism in Cyprus, Thomas Cook brought 5-6 percent of arrivals to the country, some 250,000 annually.”
Hoteliers are also €50 mln out of pocket due to unpaid bills for services rendered, while 45,000 less visitors will be coming this winter.
“Economically, those in a very difficult position are the hoteliers, because they offered services in July, August and September most of which they haven’t been paid for, there is a big chance this money will be lost,” said Perdios.
Of the 15,000 tourists coming to Cyprus on a Thomas Cook holiday package, 50% are British, 40% Scandinavian and 10% are from Germany.
Perdios said it was imperative that all the stranded tourists are repatriated as smoothly as possible.
“Under the circumstances we need to ensure that tourists who are stranded are well served and will leave Cyprus with the best of impressions,” Perdios said after an emergency meeting of tourism stakeholders.
He said authorities must now examine how to replace the loss of tourists that Thomas Cook provided as its share of arrivals was 5-6%.
“I believe that a large portion of the arrivals we stand to lose will somehow be regulated by the market and other travel agencies.”
President of STEK, Association of Cyprus Tourist Enterprises, Akis Vavlitis said money owed to the hoteliers, was going to be paid end of October, November or even January 2020 and the hotel owners know that it is gone.
He said that they are looking into ways to deal with the situation in cooperation with the Deputy Ministry, but they will not ask for any money from the government.
Perdios said the government acknowledged that 2019 and 2020 were going to be difficult years and with the collapse of Thomas Cook efforts will intensify to recover lost ground.
He said this was no time to “panic” but to work really hard, cooperate and coordinate actions.
Cyprus Hotel Association President Harris Loizides (PASYXE) said that at some hotels bookings from Thomas Cook amounted to 70-80% of their business, therefore the problems for these hotels are huge.
The British High Commission said that given these exceptional circumstances, “we will ensure the Government is working around the clock to support those impacted”.
“The UK Government’s task is to get people back to Britain on flights close to their original booking.
We have surge teams at the airports to facilitate the process and help Thomas Cook customers find their replacement flights.”
Hermes Airports said the first repatriation flight for UK tourists will leave from Paphos for Manchester at 02.35 on Tuesday.
Britain is the island’s biggest tourist market representing a third of all arrivals annually.
