How to get rid of your loyal tourists

We experienced this at our favourite location in Protaras. You arrange a ‘Beach Festival’, read second-rate rock festival, place it in the direct neighbourhood of the beach hotels, which advertise family and children-friendly environments, invest heavily in manifold over-amplification, blast non-stop noise – mediocre music with penetrating bass and drums – over the whole area in a wide radius until well past midnight, from which there is no escape for thousands of hotel guests, do that five nights in a row (Protaras Summer Beach Festival, July 24 to 28) and hope for the best to finally bring down modest tourist rates even more. Congratulations to the municipality. After 15 visits to this beautiful place you have succeeded in extinguishing our desire to spend another summer here. If we would want this kind of action, we would spend our holiday in Ayia Napa in the first place, wouldn’t we?

Helmuth Gripentrog, Helsinki

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