By Stefanos Evripidou
OUTGOING Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis yesterday urged the new government to spend more on advertising for Cyprus tourism in the event of a war in Iraq. Speaking at the 25th annual Hotel Management seminar yesterday, Rolandis highlighted that his ministry had increased the tourism advertising budget to £17 million to deal with the worldwide downturn after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“The demand for tourism started to freeze up in Europe. This was strengthened by the war in Afghanistan, and will be even more with the upcoming war in Iraq,” said Rolandis. He said Cyprus was the first to suffer in case of war because of its location in the eastern Mediterranean, its position as an “expensive destination”, and the fact that tourists look towards holidays by car during times of trouble.
His ministry decided to spend £17 million on the promotion of tourism as a result. He highlighted that a new war in the Gulf would intensify the need for increased spending on advertising, and urged the new government to take heed.
President of the Cyprus Hotel Association, Avgerinos Nikita, told delegates that the upcoming months would be crucial for tourism, given the new government’s efforts to reunify the island, the signing of the EU Accession Treaty on April 16 and the uncertainty building up in Europe, tourism’s main market, from the possible outbreak of war in Iraq.
“As past experience of the 1991 Gulf War has shown us, tourism, being the most sensitive sector of economic activity, will be the first victim. Eastern Mediterranean destinations suffer the most, while the western Mediterranean tends to profit from it,” said Nikita.
Summer holiday bookings taken last month are already showing the effects of a looming crisis, he added, saying that all the signs showed that the new tourist season was going to be a particularly difficult one.
Head of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, Chrysis Prentzas, noted that the Iraq crisis was creating a climate of uncertainty, making it very difficult to predict what the consequences would be. He said the CTO was working intensively to minimise the losses if such a war broke out, but reiterated a lot depended on the developments of the next month.
Over 150 representatives from the tourism industry gathered at the Hilton Park in Nicosia to partake in a seminar run by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the University of Cyprus, covering topics on the new competitive environment, buy-outs and mergers, new quality shelters and the productivity and quality of the Cyprus tourism package.
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.
