THE AYIA Napa and Paralimni municipalities were up in arms yesterday over the state’s intention to ban civil wedding ceremonies from being conducted at hotels.
Ayia Napa mayor Antonis Tsokkos said the new limitations, if implemented, would cancel the arrival in the resort of thousands of tourists from Britain and other countries.
Tsokkos said civil marriages hold a substantial market share in Ayia Napa and the municipality and hoteliers actively try to attract them.
Ayia Napa alone receives around 30,000 visitors per year who are guests in weddings.
Tsokkos said banning these weddings in hotels would greatly hurt the economy of the area.
Just Ayia Napa this year – a year of economic crisis – hosted around 1,100 civil weddings.
Around 90 per cent of weddings involving foreigners in Cyprus is done in hotels.
These hotels have specially created venues, which are certified by the municipalities, which carry out the service on site.
A source in the Famagusta district hotel industry said: “These people will not go to the town halls, they’ll probably end up going somewhere else [another country].”
‘This will be catastrophic for the hotels,” he added.
Paralimni Mayor Andreas Evangelou said implementing these plans — to hold ceremonies in town halls only – would be the coup de grace to the tourist industry of the area.
He said these weddings were a welcome boost, for the area.
The average number of guests to these weddings was between 20 and 30 people who came to Cyprus and spent triple the amount of money the average tourist spent.
The municipalities urged officials to look into the issue carefully as such a decision would devastate the wedding tourism sector.
The Cyprus Mail could not immediately get a response from the government concerning the matter.
One wedding planner said recently that the demand for weddings in Cyprus has remained high, although the financial climate has changed how they are done.
Over the past few years, there has been a trend away from town halls to seafront hotels. Beach ceremonies are not permitted, although marrying near or overlooking the beach is allowed.
Foreign couples are said to be cutting back however on the scale of their weddings due to the crisis by using fewer additional wedding services, such as florists, photographers and transport hire.
Some planners are even offering a “Credit Crunch Package”. For €460, one firm offers booking, paperwork, a bouquet of carnations and a single tier sponge cake.
