Local councils ignoring the complaints of tourists

LOCAL COUNCILS need to do their bit to ensure increased tourist arrivals next year by cleaning up their act and their municipality, said Minister of Commerce and Tourism Antonis Paschalides yesterday.

Paschalides accused municipalities of ignoring tourists’ main complaint, that tourist areas are dirtier than they should be, with litter and mess surrounding five star hotels.

The minister said the government had rightly predicted the ten per cent drop in tourist arrivals recorded for the first seven months of 2009, noting however, that this was slightly offset by a record high in domestic tourism. The drop in income was higher than the fall in tourist arrivals as a result of the global financial crisis, he added.

Paschalides called for all stakeholders to take lessons from the ten per cent drop to ensure that the same mistakes were not repeated and that the country was better prepared for the next tourism season.

“Those who do come spend less due to the crisis. Another thing is a year ago, we didn’t have the (H1N1) flu. This affected Cyprus. July was affected more by the flu than the financial crisis,” he said.

“Fortunately, things are getting better now, and through a collective effort, we need to take certain lessons from the crisis, and act fast, because the crisis won’t go away in a few months.

“There will be problems in tourism and other sensitive areas next year. We are prepared to take measures with all the stakeholders to minimise the damage to tourism as much as possible,” said Paschalides.

The minister singled out local municipalities, particularly coastal ones, for not taking up their responsibilities and ensuring clean spaces. He called for a greater collective effort from those who did not participate “so dynamically”.

“For example cleanliness is the responsibility of the municipalities. Tourists tell us we are not so clean, and that there is litter thrown around to the right and left of five-star hotels. What do the municipalities do?” he asked.

Paschalides called on the municipalities to use the power at their disposal to carry out their responsibilities.

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