I don’t think I want to come back

Sir,

In April, I was part of a group of former Finnish Blue Berets, UN officers, who have been coming back to Cyprus every ten years since we were in the island in the 60s and 70s.

Some of us have become quite influential, really big bosses, in public life and private business in Finland since that time, but all of us consider Cyprus still our “home island”.

Our disappointment at the standard of our accommodation and our treatment was therefore considerable. We were staying in a hotel that is – or has been – considered as the number one on the Larnaca seafront. In the apartment wing of that establishment, the toilets were overflowing all week, the floors and the balconies were dirty, the furniture missing or shabby and cockroaches were creeping around.

Our complaints were ignored by unsmiling reception staff. In a restaurant near the beach, the kitchen staff and waiters were angry when one of us complained of the overcooked steak, and told him to go to McDonald’s.

After this experience, I don’t need to wonder why the tourism figures of Cyprus are going down at such a pace that you should be very worried about. Who wants to come back after this kind of treatment? I don’t know of the rest of our group but I don’t think I want to come back any more.
EH
Finland

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.