TOURISM Minister Nicos Rolandis yesterday launched an investigation into how misleading tourism figures were given to the Cabinet last week, prompting ministers to postpone a new aid package for the industry.
The Hoteliers’ Association (PASYXE) on Thursday night requested an urgent meeting with President Glafcos Clerides after the data, which showed optimistic bookings figures, prompted the cabinet to postpone approval of a new aid package for the ailing tourism industry until May 8.
However, the following day the CTO revealed figures showing a much worse picture of the situation than that submitted to the Cabinet. Hoteliers alleged that the wrong figures were presented to the Cabinet deliberately.
The figures submitted showed an increase in bookings of 23 per cent and 13 per cent respectively for May and June, instead of an actual drop in bookings of 34 per cent and 11 per cent for the same two months.
Worse still, figures from the CTO’s London office showed that bookings for July and August were down 26 per cent and 48 per cent respectively.
A government announcement yesterday said the only conclusion to be drawn from the incident was that an investigation should be launched into how the wrong figures were given to the Cabinet, despite the fact that the CTO said what had happened was simply a misunderstanding.
However, the statement said that the officials who presented the optimistic figures were well of the problems in global tourism and should immediately have realised that there couldn’t have been an increase in bookings for the months specified when the average reservation numbers were down.
“Why didn’t they raise questions and review the figures but went ahead and submitted then when it was crystal clear they could not be true?” the statement said. “And why was the ministry and the minister not informed personally about this issue?”
The statement said the investigation, which is being carried out with the CTO chairman, is due to be completed by May 7.
Hoteliers were immediately suspicious as to how the wrong figures could be given and angered that they had resulted in the postponement of a proposal by Rolandis for additional advertising revenue. They believed it was done deliberately because the optimistic figures were too vastly different to the reality not to have aroused suspicions given the decline in tourism since the September 11 attacks in the US.
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