THE GOVERNMENT is determined to support the tourism industry during the international economic downturn, assured Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides yesterday during a gathering of tourism’s leading players.
Speaking at a tourism forum titled Tourism of the Future, the minister highlighted that the tourism sector would get direct and indirect support from both the government and EU funds up until 2013.
Around €13m will be available from EU funds for the enhancement of the tourism product, while the budget for supporting agrotourism brings that up to €15m, he said.
On the contentious issue of golf courses, Paschalides said the ministerial committee has completed its task and come up with a number of proposals which will be discussed during today’s cabinet meeting.
Perhaps the most pressing issue on everybody’s mind was the need to tap into the Russian tourism market and the enhanced difficulty for Russians in getting visas to Cyprus post-EU accession.
For this, the minister pledged that the procedures for checking passports would be simplified while three new consular offices would be opened in Russia. Paschalides said it was unacceptable Russian tourists wishing to visit Cyprus to face such difficulties.
Igor Godovnikov, the General Manager of one of the largest tour operators in Cyprus, Capital Tours, confirmed that the visa procedures created big problems for Russians living outside of Moscow.
He also noted that the global economic crisis had affected the middle-income families who provided the bulk of tourism in Cyprus. Godovnikov said Russians loved to visit Cyprus but not when prices become prohibitive.
“The Russian market is one of the markets with potential and which we approached intensely. We expect this to counter the reduction and losses we will have from other markets,” said Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) head Phoebe Katsouri.
“It is a huge market and we have approached it in coordination with the private sector and through building long-term cooperation with our partners in the Russian market,” she added.
Head of the European Association of Travel Agents, Akis Kelepeshis, noted that Cyprus could not avoid the effects of the global downturn.
“We won’t be left out because our main sources of tourism have been directly affected. I’m talking about Britain, Germany, France, so it’s unavoidable that our arrivals will be affected too.
“From there on out, we definitely have to improve our product beyond more advertising abroad,” he said.
