By Jean Christou
A NEWLY-ESTABLISHED holiday investment company has accused officialdom of almost killing tourism through red tape.
Nicosia-based Carrington Holiday Investments, a time share company, which uses 16 of the island’s hotels, said Cyprus “may possibly have been the worst choice of pilot countries for such a sophisticated scheme”.
Hoteliers too came under fire, after around half of the 30 initial partner units pulled out and tried to persuade others to do the same.
“None the less, those 16 hotels (which include the St George in Paphos) were sufficient to make a Cyprus launch of the product feasible,” Carrington said in a statement yesterday.
“We are obviously disappointed by the attitude of the larger players within the industry. It appears that our efforts to help the Cyprus tourism industry were not as strong as their desire to ensure smaller hotels didn’t get a competitive advantage.”
The company also accused government officials of attempting to destroy the programme and said some bank managers had intimated to their hotel customers that the plan was “unsavoury”.
“Should such problems arise… the company intends to have its bond issued from its UK marketing company thus denying Cyprus – yet again – the advantage of much needed foreign income,” it said.
Carrington said the only “glimmer of hope” it had received was from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO), which however “does not have the power” to promote a particular product.
Under the company’s programme, tourists can become holiday investors at any of the 16 resort hotel units for a period of 12 years, giving them 12 years of pre-paid holidays for up to four people.
The hotels would commit a maximum of 20 per cent of their annual capacity to these holiday investors. As a safety net, the company says that at least 40 per cent of the income generated from Holiday Investing would be placed under professional management for 12 years.
“Unfortunately, the financial institutions in Cyprus chose to give up the opportunity,” the company said.
Hoteliers Association Director-general Zacharias Ioannides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that he had no idea that such a project had been initiated in Cyprus.
But he did say that time sharing was not something the Association would generally be in favour of. “If and when we consider that this type of development may have some benefit to the economy, legislation will have to be introduced,” Ioannides said.
Officials from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) were not available for comment yesterday.
