HOTEL OCCUPANCY across the island is at nearly 100 per cent, said the Cyprus Tourist Organisation (CTO) yesterday.
Director of the Tourism Department, Lefkos Phylactides told the Cyprus Mail that, “there is extremely high demand at the moment. We are in the midst of the peak season anyway and with the current influx of evacuees from Lebanon, individuals are rapidly filling up all available beds.”
He added that the CTO tries to assist embassies and other organisations in facilitating and securing accommodation.
“We are currently compiling, on a daily basis, a list of all available beds, with emphasis on the Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia and Ayia Napa areas,” he said.
“This is for short-term accommodation of one or two nights only and the list is distributed to embassies as well as to the Consular Department of the Foreign Ministry.
“In the early hours of yesterday morning, there were 400 available rooms island-wide. We are carefully monitoring the situation and are aware that any sudden, massive influx of evacuees will mean that there will be no beds available.”
He did stress however that the normal occupancy rate during the peak tourist season between late July and mid-August is close to 100 per cent anyway.
Antonis Josifides, President of the Larnaca District Committee of the Hoteliers Association, estimated that the town has seen, “an increase of approximately 20 per cent in occupancy rates compared with the same period in previous years. I would say that this is due to the unfortunate events in Lebanon.”
Pambos Tsirtsipis, front office manager of the Sandy Beach Hotel in Larnaca said: “We are currently at 90 per cent capacity compared with 68 per cent for the corresponding week last year. All the hotels in Larnaca are packed, due to the crisis creating extra business.”
However, The Hilton, in Nicosia, on Wednesday night was running at 53 per cent capacity, with a spokesman saying that the figure was expected to rise slowly in the coming days. “We have not taken in many people caught up in the troubles,” he said.
The CTO also made it clear that there have to date been no cancellations from tourists planning on holidaying on the island due to the Middle East crisis.
With all the extra people coming into the island, Larnaca Airport’s Civil Aviation authorities explained that an estimated 200 flights have been coming and going from the airport every day since the crisis began. “This compares with a normal figure of 160 for this time of year,” a spokesman said.
He also denied reports that the airport was forced to close for a short period on Wednesday night as it was claimed that there was no more parking space for planes. “These reports are not true,” the spokesman said, adding that, “some planes were slightly delayed until landing clearance was given.”
When asked whether the airport could cope with the increased demand, which shows no sign of abating, he said: “At the moment, there is no problem, but we can only cope up to a certain point.”
Foreign Minister George Lillikas said that Paphos Airport would be expanding its operations to help out, as would the Andreas Papandreou military air base.
