EIGHTY per cent of Cypriots who had booked holidays to Egypt, have cancelled since the weekend’s terrorist attacks.
That was the verdict of Dinos Kakkouras, executive director of tour operator, Top Kinisis in Nicosia, who said that “people planning on holidaying in Egypt now want to holiday in Cyprus instead, but accommodating all this extra demand may prove difficult.
“Every year we see no spare hotel beds on the island for the whole of August. Since the terrorist attacks in Sharm el-Sheikh, a request has come in from some tour operators to increase the number of beds. But we are still continuing charter flights to the resort with 40 tourists from Cyprus actually leaving for Sharm on Monday night. We are not cancelling flights, as some people still want to travel there and we have to continue.
“For customers who do not feel safe travelling to the resort, we are laying on extra charters to Kos and other destinations. People don’t want their money back, but want to go on holiday to a safe destination. They don’t have any problem with changing destination.”
He went on to say that “since the attacks, we have had more requests from people wanting to holiday in Cyprus, but however many extra thousands we get, it’s not a solution for the tourist industry on the island, as we’ll cover the occupancy rate for an extra couple of weeks and it still won’t solve the problem of yearly occupancy.”
George Michaelides, General Manager of Marketing at Louis Cruise Lines, one of the biggest cruise Lines in the Mediterranean, agreed with Kakkouras, saying: “I expect that some tour operators will offer their clients the possibility of spending their holidays elsewhere, and Cyprus, for sure, will be one of those destinations. What usually happens when there is a problem with a specific area is that traffic is diverted elsewhere.”
He added that “on Monday, our Serenade cruise ship set sail for Egypt with 445 passengers from Cyprus on board. We only had a small number of cancellations and even had a number of new bookings, taking the ship up to nearly full capacity. This shows that tourists still feel safe in Egypt, despite what happened over the weekend.”
Photos Photiou, President of the Cyprus Tourist Organisation, said, “we don’t have any signs that tour operators are cancelling holidays to Cyprus. On the contrary, they are calling us up with customers wanting to change destinations from Egypt to Cyprus. We don’t yet know whether this is going to be a long-term trend or not. But what is important is that we don’t want to create problems for a friendly, neighbouring country like Egypt.
“However, if foreign travel agencies want to book Cyprus holidays, we can’t refuse.”
Would you change your holiday plans?
WITH recent devastating bomb attacks in London and Sharm el-Sheikh, both big destinations from the Cyprus market, the Cyprus Mail asked people around Nicosia yesterday whether they would now take the risk of terrorism into account when planning their summer holidays.
Yiannis Petrou, a 33-year-old graphic designer from Nicosia said: “I would still go to London as it’s such a massive place, the chances of being affected are slim. However, I would not feel safe in Sharm el-Sheikh and would not book a holiday in Israel or Turkey due to safety considerations.
Maria Vladimirou, a 52-year-old housewife from Limassol said: “The situation is out of control. It’s obvious that the people behind this want to cause maximum chaos and it’s only going to get worse. I would definitely avoid high-risk destinations such as the Middle East when thinking about where to go on holiday.
Civil servant Pambos Theophanides said the current situation would not affect him. “Safety is a factor but it wouldn’t necessarily make me change my plans. I regularly travel to London anyway and will be going again next year. As I’m living in Cyprus, Sharm el-Sheikh is not somewhere I’d think of going as I normally look for something different to what is offered here.
Elena Michailides, a 23-year-old research analyst in the capital, said: “Yes, I very much take safety into account but the world is such a dangerous place these days that you’re just as likely to be run over by a taxi driver in Nicosia as being blown up by a terrorist in London. I grew up in the Middle East and never felt under any threat, so yes, I would go there on holiday.”
