THE Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) is redrawing criteria for the classification of hotels as part of a plan to reposition the island on the tourist map, chairman Photis Photiou said yesterday.
Speaking at the House Finance Committee, where the CTO budget was being discussed, Photiou said that the criteria, being determined in-house, would be submitted to the Tourism Ministry by the end of March.
They will include a list outlining what facilities and amenities hotels in each category should provide. Those hotels that fail to meet the new criteria will be downgraded and lose stars.
The re-classification project is one of two simultaneous processes that the CTO has undertaken to clean up the hotel sector. The second comes from an outside study, and involves the withdrawal or demolition of sub-standard tourist accommodation units. This study will also be ready by the end of next month. It envisages offering cash and other incentives to hoteliers and apartment owners to upgrade, change the use of their buildings, or have them demolished. As many as 10 per cent of tourist beds could go under this scheme, which is slated to cost millions of pounds. Phase one of the study has earmarked 250 low-quality and unsightly tourist establishments either for closure or upgrading.
Photiou said tourist accommodation that was not up to scratch was badly damaging the industry, and that the gap between cost and quality must be bridged.
“These are important steps because they change the regulations that govern the hotels’ sector,” he said, adding that the CTO would not hesitate to downgrade four and five star hotels that did not measure up to the new quality criteria.
“This is an important effort we have undertaken,” he said. “We have spoken with the Tourism Ministry and we have spoken with the hoteliers.”
He also called on local authorities to clean up their act in the areas surrounding many hotels, where he said there were reports of rubbish being piled up. Foreign experts have on several occasions noted that five star hotels in Cyprus are located in no-star surroundings.
Photiou said the only way to reverse the negative picture of the island’s tourism was to proceed with the strategic plan to 2010, saying it should become the “gospel” of tourism’s future.
“Cyprus needs to be repositioned on the tourist map,” he added. “It should reduce the gap between the cost and quality so we can reverse the negative picture.”
Photiou said the CTO’s budget for this year would come to around £37 million, £24 million of which would be spent on advertising and promotion.
He also said prospects for 2005 were satisfactory with a forecast increase of between two and five per cent, with traditional markets, which have declined somewhat in recent years, showing a turnaround.
Further increases are expected from Germany, Switzerland and France.
He did, however, express concern over the 20 per cent drop in Russian tourists last year. Travel from Russia has been hampered since Cyprus joined the EU last May and visas were reintroduced. The CTO wants the government to up the number of places in Russia where visas can be obtained, although the procedure has been streamlined since last year.
Photiou said Cyprus was also still under pressure from more competitive destinations in the region, such as Turkey and Egypt.
