WHILE the Russian market to Cyprus is recovering in terms of numbers, the island’s market share of outgoing Russian tourists is falling.
Russian tourism peaked in 1997 with 221,854 arrivals and slumped in 2004 to 93,208, when the visa-free regime was abolished due to Cyprus’ EU entry. Last year arrivals from Russia reached 130,672 but only 70 per cent of those were tourists. Others were Russian residents and business people.
In 2003 Cyprus had a two per cent share of the Russian market but as the number of Russians going abroad has increased, the island’s share of the pie has dropped to 1.8 per cent.
Cyprus has also dropped from being the third choice for Russians to 11th, while Turkey has maintained its position as the top destination for the past five years.
However, president of the ICS travel group, Dimitri Shevchenko said it was not totally accurate to compare Cyprus, Turkey and Egypt as each was considered as a different cultural experience.
But he did say Cyprus could easily be compared to Spain, Italy and Greece in this context.
Each of these three countries has managed to secure and maintain over three per cent of outgoing tourism from Russia and hold positions two, three and four after Turkey.
“Cyprus is mostly considered by Russians as a summer beach destination,” said Shevchenko. “But in the last four years Spain, Greece and Italy have nearly double the amount of clients as Cyprus. Why is Cyprus, which has a very nice position in our tourist industry not even in the top ten now?”
Shevchenko also said Russian tastes had changed. Where in previous years Russians sought out two and three-star hotels, growing numbers were now asking for four and five star. There is an even bigger demand for all-inclusive packages, something Cyprus lacks.
“They don’t want hotels to just offer food and accommodation. They also want family activities and sports,” said Shevchenko. “Cyprus cannot compete with Turkey on this. Greece and Italy try to create these concepts and if you compare Cyprus and Crete, the latter has doubled its intake of Russian tourists over the last three years.”
Shevchenko said the key factors were the cost of the package, a lack of direct flights from regional airports, a lack of variety in the hotels sector, and the visa procedures.
“We can’t demand a visa-free regime from the Cyprus government but we can demand the process be made easier,” he said.
Flights are also a big issue. While Cyprus’ competitors have between nine and 12 direct flights each from regional airports in Russia, Cyprus has only four per week.
“This influences choice,” said Shevchenko.
“The cost of tickets to Cyprus are more expensive than Spain and double those to Turkey and Bulgaria.”
Larnaca airport was also unacceptable in terms of quality of service, according to Shevchenko. He said he has heard of cases were Russians with valid visas, booked into five-star hotels were detained at passport control for three hours. “I once spent three hours in front of passport control and I can’t understand why they need to check our visas and then they use only four cabins,” Shevchenko said.
“It’s a terrible situation. We have a lot of help from the Cyprus embassy in Russia but to increase Russian tourism we must simplify visa procedures for regions using direct flights and that includes seven-day embassy service.”
Shevchenko said this was a particular problem when it came to last-minute bookings.
“Cyprus is special for Russian clients but stop being so late with everything,” he added.
