THE GOVERNMENT needs to listen to what the tourism industry is saying and then take co-ordinated action urgently, a conference of tourism specialists said yesterday.
“There is some effort and action by the government, but it is not co-ordinated action. The point is that the effort should be efficient. Are the resources, such as advertising budget, being invested in the right areas to make a difference to the industry operators?” said Ioannis S. Pantelidis, Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Management at London Metropolitan University.
“I am sure we will not succeed in maintaining the number of tourists that come to Cyprus for a number of reasons, but mainly because the government is not taking the right action at the right time”, said Savvas Adamides, Director of the College of Tourism and Hotel Management (COTHM) Cyprus.
“They decided to waive some taxes and fees, amounting to €51 million, but here we are at the end of March and they still haven’t taken the final decision on how to implement this measure”, he added.
Adamides was referring to the government’s measure to reduce VAT on hotel accommodation from eight to five per cent, which was announced in early February. Yesterday, President Christofias presented a bill for this measure to the House of Representatives for a second time, after the first bill was withdrawn when various political parties tried to amend it to also benefit the restaurant sector.
Adamides said: “We haven’t seen a single government representative here today.
“I was interviewed on TV in 1990 and said the same things about tourism then that I said today. The infrastructure for diversifying our tourism is still not there. They have to act.”
Symptomatic of the communication gap with the government and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) is that CTO Director of Tourism Annita Demetriadou gave a welcoming speech to open proceedings, and then left, leaving another CTO representative to take notes rather than actively participate in the various panel discussions.
The conference was organised by the Cyprus Centre of London Metropolitan University and the COTHM on the theme of ‘Tourism amidst a global crisis’, and took place at the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEVE). The participants included industry specialists and academics, who discussed a wide range of issues and alternative forms of tourism such as rural, environmental, cultural and religious tourism.
Noel Josephides, Managing Director of Sunvil Holidays and Chairman of the Association of Greek Cypriot Travel Agents (UK), took the CTO to task for its bureaucracy and lack of responsiveness.
“The biggest problem we have with the CTO is that its London office is powerless. Someone can express an interest in organising a visit to Byzantine churches, and we can put in a proposal to the London office, but by the time they get back to us with an answer – maybe six months later or more – the interest in the initiative is no longer there.”
Overall, he said, “it’s not only the current recession that is the problem; the problem has been coming for some time”.
“We’ve had no growth [in tourism] since 2000. What we’ve been talking about today would probably only involve 250,000 [visitors], but by concentrating on these market segments and raising people’s perception of what Cyprus stands for, you raise the overall level of the tourism industry in this island.
“We’ve been saying this for the last 20 years, but we don’t think that the authorities really believe in this.”
John Tangney, whose UK company has specialised in pilgrimage travel for over 30 years, said that talk of offering Cyprus as a destination for religious tourism is just that – talk.
“Cyprus has been promoted as a beach destination for at least the last 40 years. For Cyprus now to position itself as a “religious” destination, it needs the correct marketing. I do not mean TV and popular press, I mean getting to the market of the parishes, associations and common interest groups.” He added: “Familiarisation trips are all well and good, but will only succeed where the right organisers have been sourced.”
Ioannis Pantelides is convinced we should take an optimistic view. “The global crisis may be a wake-up call, but it doesn’t have to mean accepting defeat. This is the moment when the clever entrepreneur and the innovative people are going to find the golden opportunities and do really well.”
“The CTO is not doing enough marketing. They will say they produce a whole range of printed materials, but marketing is not just about producing promotional materials, it is about promoting the message contained in those materials. They do certain things very well, but they’re missing a holistic marketing strategy, which for instance involves communicating to hoteliers, restaurateurs, travel agents and so on what they are doing, making sure the material is available where it is needed, and encouraging co-operation between key players.”
Pantelides said Cyprus’ internet presence in terms of tourism is practically non-existent.
“You need the traditional marketing tools to work hand-in-hand with the internet presence. Especially in times of economic crisis, when traditional marketing budgets are being slashed, the internet is one of the cheapest and most effective ways of putting your message across.”
