Tourism path to recovery still a long way off

HOTELIERS yesterday warned that a slight boost in tourist arrivals this year would not be enough to take the ailing sector back on path to recovery.

“The omens for this year are bad,” said Haris Loizides in a speech before the annual conference of PASYXE, the main hoteliers association.

Despite some positive signs in recent weeks, with an increase in hotel reservations compared to the same period last year, one should not use 2009 as a measure of comparison since that year was the worst in the decade, he said.

Structural problems — bureaucratic snags and time-consuming procedures – and lack of competitiveness were the two primary problems facing the tourism industry, added Loizides.

However, Loizides said a travel and tourism exhibition in Berlin in two weeks time would give a better indication of where Cyprus tourism stands.

Latest available figures for 2009 showed an 11 per cent drop in arrivals, and a 17 per cent drop in revenue.

In December, Loizides had warned the tour operators continued to be very unresponsive to the Cypriot market, leading to a 10 per cent increase in hotels deciding to close completely for the winter – despite government measures to support the sector

In a speech read out on behalf of Commerce and Industry Minister Antonis Paschalides, who could not personally attend the conference, the minister conceded that 2009 was a “particularly difficult year for our tourism” but claimed this should be seen in the wider context of the global economic crisis.

The minister said also that the doomsayers, who had predicted an even worse year for 2009, had been proven wrong.

The government anticipates that the operation of marinas and theme parks will give a much-needed boost to tourism this summer.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.