Island ranks among lowest of 130 countries on several key issues
CYPRUS clocks up twice as many disadvantages as advantages on the World Economic Forum’s tourism competitiveness index for 2008, scoring among the lowest of 130 countries on value for money, airport charges and attitudes towards the natural environment.
According to the Forum’s annual Travel and Tourism Competitiveness report, Cyprus has the highest number of tourist beds per capita in the world but ranks only 24th out of 130 countries in terms of its overall competitiveness, down four places since last year.
Although the overall 24th place is high, when the criteria are broken down, the island scores only 21 advantages compared to 45 disadvantages as a tourist destination.
In 2007 Cyprus was in 20th place on the index.
Placed 95th, Cyprus` worst scores came in on price competitiveness and value for money. This category included 99th place for airport charges, 94th on purchasing power parity, 95th on fuel prices and 94th for hotel prices.
By comparison, Spain, one of the island’s biggest tourism competitors clocked up 55th place on the price of its hotels.
On air transport, the report put Cyprus in 55th place in terms of the quality of infrastructure, and the lack of a wide choice of airlines put the island in 40th position in that category.
Cyprus’ worst score of 115th place out of the 130 countries related to the degree of openness of bilateral air service agreement.
By contract road infrastructure received the thumbs up, putting Cyprus in 23rd place but port infrastructure scores were down in the thirties.
Also low were scores on health and hygiene with not enough doctors, dentists or hospital beds per capita to satisfy the criteria for tourism competitiveness. Cyprus has only 34 hospital beds per 10,000 residents.
Views on the natural environment also helped to drag down competitiveness. Cyprus came in 70th in terms of world heritage natural sites, 54th for cultural sites, 93rd on protected areas and 41st on the quality of the environment.
The second worst score out of 130 for Cyprus was 106th place for carbon dioxide emissions.
The island also disappointed when it came to the stringency and enforcement of environmental regulations and the sustainability of the tourism and travel industry development, hovering in the forties and fifties.
Labour practices as they related to the tourism industry brought more black marks. Cyprus was placed 101st in terms of the ease of employing foreign labour and 95th for its hiring and firing practices. Staff training warranted only 70th place.
On the bright side Cyprus was placed 18th in terms of people’s attitude to tourists and 11th for prioritising the tourist industry. The effectiveness of the marketing and branding of Cyprus put the island in 29th place for that category.
The island, however did come in first out of all 130 countries in terms of the number of hotel rooms with 5.6 rooms per 100 of the population. Malta was second with 4.9. Austria was third with 3.4 and Greece fourth with 3.3 rooms per 100.
The number of hotel rooms was one of the 21 advantages Cyprus has as a destination as was the presence of major car rental companies.
The low cost of crime and violence to business was also considered an advantage but surprisingly the extent of foreign ownership of businesses brought the island back down on the list.
Cyprus constantly touts its advantages to lure foreign direct investment but the Forum’s report puts the island 56th, behind Turkey when it comes to providing the right environment to encourage foreign investment.
The prevalence of foreign ownership of businesses was low enough to warrant 77th place on the Forum’s index.
