‘We’ll name and shame tourism profiteers’

PROFITEERING at the expense of tourism will not be tolerated, the Commerce Minister said yesterday, adding that cases that fail to reach the courtrooms will be highlighted through the media instead.

Minister Antonis Paschalides said he was optimistic tourism would not be seriously affected by the global financial sector.

“Tourism is a vulnerable sector, which is expected to be affected around the world due to the financial crisis,” said Paschalides. “Cyprus has taken specific measures and we are optimistic that negative effects on tourism will be reduced.”

But he added, “If water is being sold to tourists – or anything for that matter, like sun beds, umbrellas – at extortionate prices, whoever he may be, we will take him to court when the law is being violated.”

The minister even went a step further saying that those who can’t be prosecuted due to the free market will be punished with the name and shame method, through the Cypriot media.

Regarding the recent increase in fuel prices, Paschalides said his ministry’s Consumer Services was looking into the matter.

“If there are any violations, we will intervene,” he promised.

“These prices do not depend on Cyprus or anywhere else,” the minister explained. “It is an international product; when prices go up, they go up in Cyprus too; when they go down, they are reduced in Cyprus also. The question is whether these recent increases can be justified or not.”

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.