BOOKINGS from the UK for next year will most likely be down, but Cyprus is doing a bit better than some other countries, Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) Director General Phoebe Katsouri said yesterday.
Katsouri was speaking from the World Tourism Fair in London, where tourism bosses hope to gauge to some extent the effects of the global crisis on next year’s arrivals.
“Efforts are under way to overcome the difficulties we are now facing,” Katsouri said.
She said bookings were down across the board, but some countries seemed to be doing worse than Cyprus. It remained to be seen what the final outcome would be. Katsouri said even tour operators could not yet predict what would happen.
“Britain is going through a serious economic crisis and no one can predict what the travelling public will do in 2009.”
In September, tourism to Cyprus fell 3.2 per cent year on year.
The drop, the second consecutive one, was due to a significant reduction in the arrival of British tourists.
Britain is the island’s biggest market, accounting for well over 50 per cent of all 2.4 million or so arrivals. In September, arrivals from Britain slumped 11.6 per cent compared to September 2007.
Decreases were also recorded from Greece, some 3.5 per cent, and Germany 2.4 per cent.
Since the beginning of this year, tourism arrivals have fallen a total of 0.3 per cent over the first nine months of 2007.
To halt the decline, the hoteliers have submitted a list of measures they believe need to be taken to save next year’s tourism.
They had wanted the measures to be in place in time for the London Fair, but the government has not yet announced its plan.
Katsouri said as soon as CTO officials return to Cyprus this week, a meeting will be held to discuss the findings from London.
Other reports from London yesterday said people were cancelling holidays they had booked for the current winter season, which began on November 1.
However, Tourism Minister Antonis Paschalides, who is also in the UK, told London Greek Radio that from the information the Cypriot delegation had gleaned so far, arrivals would not be greatly affected, “maybe not at all” for the winter and for next summer.
