HOTELIERS, HOWEVER, REMAIN UNCERTAIN OF WHAT THIS YEAR WILL BRING. ONE THING IS SURE: DECISIVE ACTION NEEDS TO BE TAKEN.
“Indeed, we recorded a nine percent year-on-year increase in tourist arrivals in 2015, however, we still need to be worried about the three percent decline in tourism revenue,” said Haris Loizides, president, Cyprus Hotel Association, summarising the main concern raised by industry stakeholder at the organisation’s recent 38th annual conference.
The event, held under the theme Moments of Truth – Aligning Opportunity with Collective Action, alongside the 24th Exhibition of Products & Services, saw a number of speakers examine the country’s competitive advantages and connectivity issues.
As one of the keynote speakers, Marios Demetriades, transport, communications and works minister, Cyprus, elaborated on the available opportunities for new air routes and suggested that 2015 was the best year since 2006 for the country in terms of passenger volumes, with 7.6 million travellers passing through the gates of Larnaca and Paphos international airports.
He reminded attendees that ever since national carrier Cyprus Airways ceased operations, linking the island to the world has never been more successful.
Certain European states, according to Demetriades, are still concerned about protecting their legacy carriers, mainly due to pressure from trade unions, and thus, fail to see the big picture.
As he suggested, Cyprus Airways’ closure gave the government the opportunity to support other airlines and offer attractive schemes for those interested in operating to and from the island.
Air connectivity is vital for Cyprus and its tourism industry, Demetriades explained, adding that for this very reason various measures have been adopted over the past two years to support the sector.
These included the fast implementation of an open skies policy, improved incentive schemes in collaboration with Hermes Airports, encouragement and fast examination of applications for local air operator certificates, and the formation of a joint committee by Hermes Airports and Cyprus Tourist Organisation to examine measures for better coordination.
In addition, the ministry is currently examining ways to decrease the cost for airlines operating to the nation’s airports and enhance targeted incentive programmes.
Interestingly, in 2015, 70 airlines operated to Cyprus with a diversified portfolio of 130 routes across 40 different countries.
Out of the overall passenger traffic during the year under review, hub carriers represented a high portion of 43 percent of the total figure, while charter operators were responsible for 18.8 percent of the volumes.
In his presentation, Overcoming Seasonality in Tourism: Limits and Challenges – a blueprint for Crete, Aris Ikkos, research director, INSETE, explained that seasonality is a worldwide phenomenon, that, however, mostly affects European destinations as the continent promotes sun and beach as the main assets; expectedly this distinction influences islands, including Cyprus, in the Mediterranean area.
According to Ikkos, seasonality can be overcome only once European countries move away from the fixed ideas linking them to the concept of sun and sea. Marketing a destination with the same product proposition will not have the desired results, he stressed.
Along the same lines, Constantinos Petrides, undersecretary to the president, Cyprus, focussed on the compilation of a national strategy, analysing the government’s vision for a new model in tourism development.
As Petrides explained, the regulations governing the operation of hotels as well as food and beverage venues – including the way of accommodation establishments are categorised – is distorting.
“The regulatory framework should encourage product diversification and reward the flexibility and imagination of the entrepreneur who knows better how to serve the modern and diverse needs of a consumer, rather than promoting product uniformity,” supported Petrides.
Cyprus has a long history of tourism and has been known and active in the industry as early as in the 1920s, Loizides posited, adding that over this long stretch of time, there have been a few challenging moments.
The industry has greatly benefitted from impermanent circumstances and stakeholders have failed to utilise the favourable conditions with the right vision and proper planning.
“Perhaps this was the main reason we had big ups and downs in our tourism performance. Despite the fact that our economy has always been largely based on tourism, in only a very few cases were we able to work creatively and deal with the sector’s problems,” Loizides continued.
He supported that the past shows the way forward and therefore caution needs to be exercised for this and future years in order to prove successful.
“It is a fact that negative developments in competitive destinations work in our favour, but on the other hand, they exert pressure on our pricing policies,” he added.
The conference concluded on a positive note but with participants expressing the realisation that it is high time for tourism players to take their role seriously and invest in the sector to achieve the best possible outcome.
