HOTELIERS from the island’s two main organisations yesterday said the island remained uncompetitive and expensive as a tourist destination, releasing figures that showed an average occupancy in 2004 of only 52 per cent.
The statistics were released by the Association of Tourist Enterprises (STEK), which mainly represents three, four and five star hotels, and revealed that the lowest levels of occupancy were 22.1 per cent in January last year, and 79.1 per cent in August. The average in 2003 was 50 per cent.
STEK said it was also concerned about the level of income during 2004, which led to negative profitability, particularly during the winter period. This was also affected by labour costs, STEK said.
“The wages of workers in the hotels they absorbed, on average, 51 per cent of the total income the units in comparison with 52 per cent in 2003,” STEK said. “Wages constitute the biggest operational cost for hotel units.”
In January 2004 wages absorbed, on average, around 104 per cent of the hotels’ income, the association added.
“It is evident that Cyprus tourism suffers from a lack of competitiveness,” STEK said. “Cyprus remains to a large degree dependent on an obsolete tourist model of mass and seasonal tourism comprising sea and sun, a product that is offered by an abundance of other countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, which however, offer much lower prices.”
Hoteliers Association (PASYXE) also bemoaned the lack of competitiveness yesterday saying that compared to neighbouring countries, Cyprus remained an expensive destination.
At the launch of a new project with Bank of Cyprus and American Express designed to boost internal tourism, PASYXE chairman Haris Loizides said that even though compared to Europe hotel prices in Cyprus were low, the island was perceived as expensive.
“They have labelled us expensive because everything else in Cyprus is expensive,” he said.
“The impression persists that we are expensive destination we try in a thousands ways to reverse this picture.”
Regarding local tourism, Loizides said the Association was constantly upgrading its list of offers for residents. He said there were now 61 hotels, apartments and village houses offering special deals. The complete list can be obtained from the Association, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation and the Bank of Cyprus offices.
