Women honoured for 40 holidays over 20 years
TWO BRITISH women, who have unwaveringly holidayed in Paphos for more than two decades, were honoured by Paphos mayor Savvas Vergas at the town hall yesterday.
The duo, both from West Bromwich in the West Midlands, have been coming to Cyprus since the late 1970s, but fell in love with Paphos during their first visit in 1982.
Maureen Evans and Katherine Osbourne, are both now retired, and have known each other since they attended Sunday school in their early teens.
They have travelled extensively to countries including the Seychelles, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy but Paphos still comes out on top.
Andreas Christoforou, the owner of Pandream hotel apartments in Kato Paphos, told the mayor that the duo had unfailingly holidayed at his establishment since it was built, visiting at least twice a year.
They have also attended all of the Aphrodite festival operas and all eight of the Pharos Chamber Music festivals. As well as befriending the Christoforou family, they have also made good friends in Omodos and Lefkara.
Maureen Evans told the Cyprus Mail, “It was love at first sight for us and Paphos.
“Nothing compares to the friendliness here. We haven’t come across anywhere we find as friendly, and the love and friendship, and being accepted as part of the Christoforou family has been very important for us.”
This story is an example of traditional Cypriot hospitality at its best and for many who first came to Cyprus in the 1970s and 1980s, hospitality is the main reason they came back every year.
“We need more visitors like this,” Christoforou said. “We used to have them, but the last few years the numbers are decreasing and this is something which should concern us. We should investigate the reasons why these people don’t come back as often as before.”
Both women agreed there have been “massive changes” in Paphos.
When they first holidayed here, there was only one hotel and the SODAP factory along Poseidonos Avenue, an area which is now home to several luxury hotels, cafés, bars, and shops.
Osbourne pointed out, “We’ve travelled all over the south.
“We love the apartment we stay in and the wonderful hospitality, but perhaps we should’ve moved here when we were younger. Now we’re retired, and although we love it here, we also love our home in England.”
Both women have encouraged friends and family to visit Cyprus, some of whom, like them, return year after year to the same hotel complex.
With the global financial crisis preventing many would be tourists from boarding planes this summer; this is not the case for the ladies from the west Midlands.
The pair has already booked their airline tickets for August, when they will return for a one month visit, and to enjoy the opera.
Christoforou said, “In the 1980s the number of tourists coming to Cyprus was very small, around 350,000. But gradually, as with the case of these ladies, they kept coming back. That’s why we reached the figure of 2.4 million.
“Over the last ten years, we have been stuck at that number.” He continued, “This is because the quantity of repeat visitors no longer increases as it did before, it is now decreasing. We’re sticking at this number.”
Christoforou believes this situation has been caused by a combination of reasons.
“The infrastructure has been the same since the 1980s, and we have experienced the loss of the friendliness we used to have. Everyone can see the difference of the behaviour of the locals compared with the 80s and 90s, and now.
In addition Christoforou believes that expensive flights, due to the excessive cost of airport taxes, may also be exacerbating the problem.
“Talking to the ladies has made me understand that we don’t pay so much attention to the requests of the tourists any more.
“They were saying they went to get some information this morning and they were unable to get it, because the responsible person was off sick: this is ridiculous.
“If a tourist wants to know something about Cyprus, and they can’t access the information because someone is off sick for one month something is very wrong.
“This kind of thing we have to be very careful of.”
The women also pointed out, “Cyprus isn’t advertised as well as other countries in the UK, it can be considered as a long flight for some and it’s also expensive now; these facts all contribute to the problem.
Despite their few comments, which the duo believes is helpful criticism, they promised they would keep returning to Cyprus, until they are no longer able to fly.
The mayor of Paphos was eager to meet the pair, and welcomed the women with questions concerning the changes and development of the town over the decades.
Vergas underlined his pleasure that happy visitors continue to return to Paphos. He presented each of them with commemorative statues of Aphrodite’s head and free tickets for the forthcoming ‘searched and found’ concert.
Vergas said, “I’m very pleased to meet such nice people who take a great pleasure in all that Cyprus has to offer. I hope they continue to visit us and enjoy the hospitality of Paphos.”
