Paphos is a ghost town

PAPHOS will turn into a ghost town, and unless drastic action is taken, the damage will be irreparable, restaurant owners have  warned.
The warning was issued by Fitos Thrassivoulou the president of the Paphos restaurant owners association and echoed by Evripides Loizides the spokesman of the Paphos hoteliers association.
More than 40 hotels are closed in the coastal town, some of them will remain shut until the end of Spring. In addition, restaurants, clubs, bars and other leisure facilities have also shut up shop for the winter in a bid to reduce losses.
Loizides warned: “Cyprus’ tourist product is getting old and unless we refresh it we will be in real trouble. “It’s not a question of how many hotels are closed for the winter season in Paphos but for how long.”
This is the first year in which lengthy hotel closures have occurred in the coastal town.
According to Loizides, most of the hotels on the Paphos seafront will remain open, as will hotels in the centre, as these as the areas visitors are most likely to stay during the winter months.
“Hotels towards Coral Bay and Yeroskipou are suffering and as there is a huge reduction in charter plane arrivals, obviously the capacity is also reduced.”
Loizides said the only way out of the dire situation would involve each sector of the tourism market working together.
“Airport taxes are the biggest issue. In November, tour operators couldn’t understand why the new Larnaca airport decided to increase taxes after being given help from the government. The state helps and the private sector increase prices, it’s out of place and absolutely makes no sense. This will just continue to reduce capacity,” he pointed out.
According to Loizides, markets such as Tunisia and Morocco are now in direct competition with Cyprus and they have a third of the cost of the islands airport taxes. “We charge about £48 sterling in taxes and they charge £16.”
He underlined: “Unless the government, hotels, the CTO and all concerned parties come together we will not get out of this situation.”
Thrassivoulou said, “Most restaurants in Paphos stayed open until November 15 to see if business would pick up and they could make it through the winter. But sadly many had to close; this isn’t out of choice but necessity.”
He continued: “The all-inclusive hotels are having a serious adverse affect on our businesses and judging by comments made by guests during the summer, they weren’t particularly satisfied with the produce and wouldn’t return again. We are really going to feel the pinch next year.”
Thrassivoulou said that as the British market accounts for the majority of Cyprus’ custom, ways must be found in which they may be encourage them to holiday on the island.
“We need to drop our flight prices as well as our airport taxes. We need to be less expensive and more competitive. In addition the CTO started to promote our product in the market at a very late stage, and this didn’t help,” he said. “If we keep going in the same way, there is no hope for us.”
Their comments came on the back of those made by the vice President the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce, Ilias Milianthou, who said he was particularly concerned with the drop in visitor numbers to Paphos and by the lack of general interest shown by tour operators in Cyprus at holiday exhibitions abroad.
He said on local radio: “We can forecast that there will be a drop in visitor numbers to Cyprus for 2010, as the tour operators didn’t seem to be very enthusiastic towards the island and haven’t asked for extra reservations.” Milianthou said he was pinning his hopes on last minute bookings.
“I think we will be able to encourage some of these last minute holiday makers to spend their time here if we give them better prices.”
Loizides also said that Paphos airport was not being utilised properly.
 “We need to give new airlines incentives to come here. I can think of a million reasons of how we can improve the situation, we must now take the next step.
“The problem is our complaints to the government often fall on deaf ears, as they usually don’t believe hoteliers. They think we are only out to get more money for ourselves.”