Cyprus is having a “very good” tourism season, deputy minister says

Cyprus is having a “very good” tourism season, with arrivals having exceeded the country’s target for a 5-10% annual increase, Deputy Minister of Tourism Kostas Koumis said.

He was speaking after a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides and the new board of the Cyprus Hotels Association (PASYXE), to discuss the challenges facing the tourism industry.

According to Koumis, arrivals in the first seven months of 2023 are up by an annual 27%, while revenue has increased by 30%. Indicatively, he said, arrivals this year are just 2% below those of 2019, when Cyprus marked an all-time record despite having lost the Russian tourist market.

“There is no doubt that we are going through a very good tourism season and as a member of PASYXE has noted, we have covered the gap of the tourism market,” he said.

However, Koumis noted we should not focus only on numbers because “the tourism industry has amassed a series of problems and issues which we are called to solve and to manage”.

Koumis said the deputy ministry in collaboration with PASYXE can now focus on addressing long-standing problems facing the industry, such as employment and the hotels' licensing framework.

As PASYXE President Thanos Michaelides explained, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cypriot accommodation industry was left with a deficit of 5,000 persons; which he said warranted “swift and flexible decisions”.

Responding to questions, Koumis said the employment gap in the tourism sector was a worldwide issue and emerged due to the spike in tourist flows, especially after the pandemic, while Cyprus has been facing the problem since 2018 and 2019.

He noted that the Ministry of Labour in the coming period will outline its strategy which will include solutions on this specific issue.

On his part, Michaelides expressed satisfaction over the season so far, and claimed that the quality of tourists has also improved compared with 2019, “which is more important than the absolute numbers of arrivals”.

He added that in 2024, Cyprus will surpass the 2019 record due to the very good momentum this year, and improved air connectivity especially in the winter time, which will assist arrivals in the summer of 2024.

On the issue of the employment, Michaelides called for flexibility and swift decisions, noting that since the COVID-19 pandemic the industry has been facing a shortage of approximately 5,000 persons.

“We need to understand there is a large shortage of labour force in Cyprus, which if not solved surely will harm the tourism industry,” he went on to say.

Furthermore, asked about rising interest rates, Michaelides said this is a great problem for the hotel industry which is capital intensive due to the significant investments required.

“If we take into account that we had two very difficult years following the pandemic, these (rate hikes) are putting a lot of pressure on the hotels’ profitability and it is worrying the hotel industry,” he noted.

On his part, Koumis said the government has limited solutions over this issue, stressing that “we are interested in a healthy hotel accommodation industry and to that end we are discussing each issue separately”.

(Source: CNA)