Hoteliers outline problems facing the industry
HOTELIERS from the Association of Tourist Enterprises (STEK) yesterday expressed serious concern over the future of the island’s tourism, saying the sector was still facing numerous problems.
Speaking at STEK’s AGM, the organisation’s president Renos Solomides said that half-way through the government’s strategic plan for tourism, the industry was still in crisis.
“For the fourth year running our tourist enterprises have been experiencing a crisis of profitability,” Solomides said.
He said despite an increase in arrivals revenue in real terms was falling far short of tourist income before 2001, when the industry fell into its biggest crisis since the 1990 Gulf War. This should be of concern to all, he added.
Giving a basic outline of the problems, the STEK president said a radical modernisation of the industry was needed, and that included the reorganisation of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO). He said despite some changes the CTO still had the mentality of a public service body.
He said Cypriot tourism was facing very different conditions from the previous stages of its tourist development and must modernise to face up to the increased competition.
The failure and obstruction of appointing a new CTO General Director and the absence of private-sector representatives on the CTO board constituted not only “tangible samples of paralytic bureaucracy” but also negative perceptions in a Cyprus that aspires to speedy Europeanisation.
Solomides said STEK supported in the past and continued to support a National Council for Tourism and a separate Ministry for Tourism that would keep the issue to the fore.
“The development of the tourist sector is found in the hands of many different institutions, organisms, teams and individuals the private and public sector,” he said.
Solomides also said hoteliers were still being hounded by the large foreign tour operators for lower prices, something that threatened their very existence. Added to this, he said loans taken out by hoteliers to survive had reached unprecedented proportions.
“Any investment in the hotel sector can now be regarded as an act of heroism,” he said.
Other issues that concern STEK are the delays in the completion of infrastructural work in the area of the hotels, delays in upgrading the airports, and creating marinas and golf courses.
Solomides said STEK supported the CTO’s plan to offer incentives for the withdrawal of sub-standard tourist accommodation.
However he strongly criticised the country’s environmental policies as a whole saying the island was a mess of callous commercialism and rife with the exploitation of foreigners and rip-off prices.
“No progress has been achieved for the cracking down on of noise pollution, nor for improvements in public transport,” he said. ‘Also no progress has been made for changing the aesthetics. On the contrary criminal building continues everywhere resulting in built-up areas with arbitrary planning. Often the areas outside the hotels cause pitiful impressions for a tourist country which claims to attract high-income visitors.”
Under such circumstances, he added, it is not surprising that Cyprus has no diversity or identity.
Another issue that concerns STEK is a lack of coordinated action between the public and private sectors in the area of marketing and public relations. This must be organised, Solomides said.
He stressed the importance of the industry to the economy and to its future prosperity.
“Our economic future is unbreakably connected with tourism, which can rightly can be described as the “light blue oil of” Cyprus,” he said.
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