The arrival of new flights and arrivals from other markets, beyond the traditional ones, has yielded the desired results for the island, with Ayia Napa hotels currently filled to capacity, Yiannis Karousos said.
“Since July 15, 2015 a large UK tour operator has increased its flights to the Famagusta district by two a week,” he said. “This positive development has fetched around €6m in revenues.”
The mayor said Cyprus had benefited from recent geopolitical developments in the region, which resulted in demand for safe resorts like Ayia Napa and arrivals from other markets.
Karousos however, struck a note of caution against complacency.
“We must prepare infrastructure and services so that Cypriot tourism should not depend on geopolitical developments in our region, but make all the necessary moves to have Cyprus on the list of preferences of tourists from traditional markets and elsewhere,” Karousos said.
The mayor added that already they were receiving positive messages for next year, especially from Russian and the UK. Tourist arrivals have seen a 6% rise in the first half of the year, as traditional markets covered the losses from the Russian market, the tourism organisation (CTO) said on Tuesday.
“It appears there is a good dynamic,” CTO deputy general manager Annita Demetriadou said. “Taking into account the data from the first six months, there is a rise touching 6%.”
Speaking at a news conference, she said arrivals exceeded one million as traditional markets covered Russian losses.
“Arrivals in the past six months, until June, exceed one million tourists, which is a record,” she said.
Demetriadou also said that overcharging phenomena have also seen a steep drop following publication of the CTO’s price list. Quality assurance deputy director Giorgos Pericleous said publication of the list prompted many vendors to cut their prices to match the competition.
One example, he said, was the price of frappe in Protaras, which has dropped to €2 in many areas.
“While it was €4 to €5 a few years ago, today, it has really dropped very low,” he said. “We feel we have achieved one of our basic goals with the publication of the price watch.”
Pericleous said it was illegal for the price charged to be higher than the one of the CTO’s pricelist, and he urged consumers to report such cases to the organisation. But such cases have decreased.
“Cypriots have realised they must follow the prices,” he said. The CTO operates a public hotline for complaints that concern beaches. People can call 22691100 and be referred to the appropriate official.
The CTO is looking into extending the hotline’s operation until later at night.
Source: Cyprus Mail
