In a roundtable discussion on "Changing course in the tourism product", which took place in the framework of the business forum, organised by the Chamber of Commerce of Famagusta and the Chamber of Commerce of Piraeus at the conference centre in Ayia Napa Marina, the Transport Minister said that Cyprus "reacted immediately, as soon as the effort to restore the island's connectivity with the outside world began, which proved that the experiences of so many years, but also the cooperation and synergy between the government and the investor of the Larnaca and Paphos airports was effective".
Karousosos referred to the measures taken to restore flights and the connectivity of Cyprus with the rest of the world, including the Cyprus Flight Pass and the incentive plan prepared by the Ministries of Finance and Transport, which had even received the support of the European Union, because, as he explained, "we believed that in this crisis of the crown virus there were opportunities".
He added that "the preparation and the cooperation that took place has brought results, since Cyprus' connectivity index is one of the best in Europe, while together with Greece we have the best direct connectivity indicators, even before the coronavirus pandemic. Today we have flights to 40 countries as we had in 2019, and if it were not for the war in Ukraine, we would have had more passenger traffic compared to this year."
Karousosos also said that "this year there are 700 flights on a weekly basis compared to 460 last year. One of the reasons why we will absorb, to a fairly large extent, the losses due to the war in Ukraine, is the fact that we had prepared well and properly and created the right foundations," he said.
The Transport Minister also referred to the trip he made to Brussels with the Deputy Minister of Shipping where they presented Cyprus' national positions in order to shape the conditions to achieve improvements in various provisions regarding the new EU legislative package "Fit for 55", which aims to make the European Union the first climate neutral continent by 2050.
He said in particular that over the next 25 years airlines flying to Cyprus will have an extra cost of €18 billion and noted that "we are not waiting for the measures to be passed to react. A plan has already been drawn up and we have proposals so that the costs are as low as possible so as not to affect the connectivity of Cyprus".
For his part, Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios said that the free Famagusta region "must find other sectors of the economy besides tourism, because if it succeeds in this, then both the region and the population will benefit from the opening of other businesses and other sectors, in order to make this region a full-time tourist destination."
Perdios also said that "2019 was a record year for Cyprus, as we reached about 4 million tourists. At that time Cyprus and the Deputy Ministry of Tourism were at a crossroads, as either we would continue doing what we had been doing for the last 20 years or we would try to regroup to be ready for the next crisis."
Today, he continued, "those who are at the crossroads are the businesses that are involved and want to be involved in tourism."
Today, he continued, "those who are at the crossroads are the businesses that are involved and want to be involved in tourism. These businesses have a choice to either continue to operate with what we knew 20 and 30 years ago or to join with the Department of Tourism and the Department of Transportation in what they are doing for the future of this country."
Referring to the short term action plan of the National Strategy for Tourism, which ends this year, he said that "we have achieved a lot, because in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport we have opened many routes, but we have also given importance to markets that we had forgotten, especially in the free province of Famagusta. We have now started to bring back the Scandinavians, the Germans, the Swiss and the Austrians, while great importance has been given to many aspects of tourism."
According to Perdio, "since 2019, one third of the Deputy Ministry's budget started to be given to special forms of tourism and product upgrading so that today, despite all the difficulties, we can stand on our feet."
Moreover, Sophia Zacharaki, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Greece said that "the triptych of balance, sustainability and quality is what prevails right now in the decade that we have a long-term strategy in the Ministry, but making some qualitative changes. The adventure of the coronavirus pandemic has given us a sense of resilience, the confidence that tourism people, entrepreneurs and employees feel, but there are legitimate concerns about human resources."
He added that "in 2021 in Greece we achieved 60% of 2019 revenues and a 27% increase in average spending, while several markets that in the past may not have had such a large presence are now showing more interest in visiting the country. There is a lot of interest from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India and South Korea, France, as well as Germany from which TUI airline has planned to carry over three million visitors."
Ms. Zacharaki also noted that there is a conscious decision to cause a greater increase in the number of Greeks visiting Cyprus to enjoy not only the sea, but also the mountains, nature, villages and all the experiences that the island's Deputy Ministry of Tourism wants to highlight.
For his part, Doros Takkas, President of the Pancyprian Association of Famagusta Hoteliers said that "the crisis we are going through today is a continuation of the pandemic that affected us in the last two years, but just when everything was ready for us to have a very good tourist season, the war in Ukraine came, which affected us to a very great extent. But what has really affected us is the sanctions have been imposed on Russia, which have affected us disproportionately in terms of tourism."
He added that "overnight we have lost a quarter of tourism and it is extremely difficult and very limited to attract new markets to fill this gap. Over 60 per cent of tourists from Russia used to end up in the free province of Famagusta and today we are experiencing an extremely difficult and unprecedented situation."
According to Takka, "too many hotels are closed and are likely to remain closed throughout the season, but the effort continues, enough has been done and much more can be done. We will reduce the damage in the future, we will close this hole as much as it can be closed, but certainly this gap cannot be filled this year."
Source: CNA
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