By Jean Christou
HOTELIERS are concerned that the merger of two British tour giants may result in pressure on them to reduce prices, they said yesterday.
The announcement by Airtours that it had acquired First Choice Holidays in a £1 billion sterling takeover has reduced the number of leading UK operators using Cyprus from three to two.
It also means that Thomson Holidays will no longer be leading the way as the largest operator to Cyprus.
Holiday industry analysts in the UK are gearing up for the expected price war the bitterly-fought takeover is likely to prompt by making Airtours- First Choice Britain’s biggest tour operator.
Cypriot hoteliers, already suffering a slump in bookings over the war in Yugoslavia, fear that such a price war could result in operators’ demands for even lower prices from the UK, Cyprus’ main holiday market.
“A takeover merger that consolidates the tourist industry among very few gigantic organisations can direct and control the tourist flow in a most formidable way,” Hoteliers’ Association Director General Zacharias Ioannides told The Sunday Mailyesterday.
“This big organisation in its objective to secure a bigger share (of the market) can set prices and put pressure on suppliers, including hotels.”
Ioannides added that the merger of two of the three largest operators to Cyprus would also be a major threat to the market leader Thomson.
Thomson is the current market leader in Cyprus, bringing in around 180,000 of the one million or so British tourists who holiday on the island every year, a Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) official said yesterday.
Airtours brings in around 100,000 British tourists and First Choice another 100,000 with its charter subsidiary Air 2000 which has also been operating scheduled flights to the island since 1993.
In addition to the three British holiday giants, some 250,000 British tourists travel with specialist Cyprus operators.
The CTO official said the merger of Airtours and First Choice should not prove to be a problem for Cypriot hoteliers as long as the specialist operators continue to bring in such large numbers. “Of course this remains to be seen,” he said. “It will however prove to be a big challenge for Thomson.”
