Cyprus is tired and past its sell-by date

Sir,

Mr Clark’s letter in the Sunday Mail about the rapid decline of tourism in Cyprus raises many problems with the CTO.

It appears that those in charge have either no policy or display a lack of understanding or worse, show an indifference to what was once the main income for the Island.

But the problem goes far beyond the number of visitors coming to Cyprus. It is the tourist who returns to buy a home. This creates wealth for others, the developer who sells the house which created work for the builders, the shop that sells the white goods, the car dealer that supplies the transport, the restaurant and shops who now feed them.

Cyprus has fallen back on the building trade to plug the financial gap, where money was once generated by the tourist. But without the tourist there is no need to build further houses. The tourist is at the head of the financial market in fiscal terms, not an afterthought. The tourists no longer come to Cyprus because Cyprus no longer offers value for money. It has become expensive through greed and avarice and is looking tired and past its sell by date. Take a drive along Tombs of the Kings Road in Paphos and see how the once spectacular view has now all but gone.

It is no use blaming the euro or weak sterling the signs were there for all to see long ago.

Peter G Davis,

Droushia

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.