TOURISM arrivals for 2003 should end around five per cent down, but prospects for 2004 are good, Tourism Minister George Lillikas said yesterday.
After a meeting with the tourism partners yesterday, Lillikas said that arrivals until the end of October were six per cent down. “The reduction is fluctuating at the moment, but we forecast it will be in the region of five per cent for 2003,” he said.
Earlier in the year, there were fears that tourism could drop as much as 10 per on last year’s 2.4 million arrivals, due to a series of external factors including the Gulf war and SARS.
Tourism revenue would be down around 10 per cent this year, Lillikas added.
The Minister said he has just returned from visits to the UK, France and Germany to assess the market for 2004 and said the feedback he had received from those countries had been positive.
“The measures that we have taken and the agreements that we have made with the tourist organisations in our basic markets allow us to be optimistic,” he said.
Added to that, the recent bombings in Turkey might direct some tourists to Cyprus as an alternative, Lillikas said.
“Our positive estimates for 2004 do not take into consideration the crisis in Turkey, but if this climate of insecurity in Turkey prevails, Cyprus will be influenced favourably,” he said.
Lillikas added the Olympic Games in Athens would also have a positive effect on next year’s tourism. He said that from his contacts in France and Germany, two falling markets, increases were expected from both next year. Lilikas said the fall this year in the German market had been significant.
The British market, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of arrivals, was steady and could possibly increase next year, the minister added.
Lillikas said yesterday’s meeting with representatives from all sectors of the industry had been to agree a strategy for next year and also to focus on domestic tourism.
He said that between now and the end of March next year hotels would be giving a host of special offers for Cypriots. Details would be announced at a later date, he said.
On Tuesday, hoteliers issued a statement saying that Cyprus was pricing itself out of the market compared to other destinations in the region and called for a series of measures and incentives to lower prices.
