By Bouli Hadjioannou
INITIAL, encouraging indications from Britain suggest Cyprus expects a four to five per cent rise in winter tourism, and growth perhaps as high as 10 per cent for the summer.
The good news was given yesterday by the new minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Michalakis Michaelides, to the House Finance Committee.
Michaelides, who was answering deputies’ questions on his ministry’s budget for 1998, said that the messages from this week’s World Travel Market in London were good.
“The World Travel market is the second largest tourist fair in Europe. I had 35 meetings there, and the initial indications are very encouraging. We will have a fuller picture once the Cyprus Tourism Organisation completes its own contacts there, particularly with larger tour operators,” the minister said.
Michaelides said a stronger sterling was a favourable contributory factor. “The only query by tour operators was whether hoteliers would be able to retain their prices. This is something we must see with the hotels and the trade unions so that Cyprus can remain competitive,” he said.
Asked whether there was a ceiling to the number of tourists Cyprus could cater for, Michaelides said there was already a moratorium against the construction of new hotels. Emphasis must turn to improving infrastructure – from roads to building golf courses and marinas.
Asked about a scheme to help manufacturing companies, ministry officials said that, of the 535 applications submitted, 350 had been approved and others were still being processed.
On the local furniture industry, Michaelides acknowledged that there was a problem – the price of raw materials often carried more duty than finished products in an effort to help protect the local factory which produces raw material. This was pushing many furniture manufacturers to become importers. Michaelides said he would be meeting interested parties next week in a bid to find a solution.
Another issue raised by Akel deputies Kikis Kazamias and George Lilikas was that of unfair competition – especially at the expense of small and medium sized shops. They said that in Europe shopping hours were regulated in such a way so as to protect smaller shops: in Cyprus the opposite seemed to be the case.
Lilikas took things further. He noted that in some European countries, the number of supermarkets and their location was linked to the size of the area they served. In Cyprus, anyone could open a supermarket anywhere they chose, he said.
Kazamias also raised the issue of consumer protection, noting that approval of legislation was just a smoke screen without the employees to implement it. The ministry’s consumer protection service now had fewer employees than when it was set up years ago, even though ten new laws and other regulations have since been approved.
