Joint recommendation of the current and former Deputy Minister of Tourism, which was expressed before the hoteliers at the PASYXE annual meeting
Change of baton from yesterday to PASYXE. Yesterday's annual assembly of PASYXE was the last time that Haris Loizidis addressed a greeting as president of the Association. Thanos takes over as new president
By Maria Herakleous
The need to search for numbers of arrivals from other tourist markets was touched upon by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Kostas Koumis, before the annual General Assembly of the All Cyprus Association of Hoteliers. In the context of his speech, he specifically mentioned that the loss of the Russian market which still exists, and is still strong today in some units or some geographical areas where a dependency relationship had been established. He pointed out that the Russian market effort continues. As of December 2022, it was clear that the United Kingdom, the largest source of tourists to Cyprus, was effectively entering a period of recession which, according to the Bank of England, will last until 2024. “It is therefore with great pleasure that we watch some markets such as Poland, Israel, Germany, France but also several other smaller ones show signs of growth”. Mr. Koumis pointed out the need for Cyprus to remain competitive in markets where we are established as a tourist destination and at the same time we must find ways to improve the country's visibility in emerging markets such as the United Arab Emirates market, which we visited before since some days. “We must work methodically in order to increase the recognition of our country as a tourist destination in the countries of the Middle East now that they are also showing an increase in outbound tourism, thus exploiting the geographical advantage of our country in relation to this particular market.” He also emphasized the need for Cyprus to open up to new markets, while he expressed his optimism that from next year the market of Kazakhstan will be opened and our country will be connected by air to the emerging economic power of Central Asia from next May. The deputy minister also mentioned the possibility of opening another market from Central Asia in the coming weeks. The K. Koumis reports are important, because now officially, he points out that the Ministry of the Interior is targeting emerging markets and increasing the recognition of Cyprus in the Middle East, going beyond the framework of our traditional markets. And this was perhaps a message to the hotel industry and hoteliers who did not react with quick reflexes after the loss of the Russian market.
Perdio's request
The former Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios formulated his position more clearly, stressing that the strengthening of our tourism cannot come from the Russian market, nor from the British one. Also speaking at the annual General Assembly of PASYXE, in the context of which he received an honorary distinction, Mr. Perdios took the floor and addressed the President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulidis, stressing the need for political will to provide an amount of 6-7 million. euros with the aim of promoting Cyprus in Asia, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates and the countries of the European Union. With this amount, which is not large, the work started will be able to continue and Cyprus will have a huge benefit in the coming years, Mr. Perdios pointed out. He underlined what he said during his term of office, that the strengthening of our tourism cannot come from the Russian market – it has been lost – but not from the British market either. Mainly for the British one, he said that it has reached the maximum of the numbers, which is also shown by the statistics. Specifically, as he mentioned, while the first five months are at +4% compared to 2019, the numbers of arrivals from the British market are down by 1.5%. At the same time, the arrivals of tourists from EU countries are increased by 50% compared to 2019. This element shows the direction in which the promotion and promotion of the tourist destination should also move.
We must work methodically in order to increase the recognition of our country as a tourist destination in the countries of the Middle East, emphasized K. Koumis.
All Time Destination
Something that both the President of the Republic and the Deputy Minister of Tourism highlighted from the floor of the assembly was the goal to develop Cyprus into a year-round destination. In fact, according to Mr. Koumis, it is not excluded that from this year there will be an increase in tourist arrivals in the remaining months as well, outside of the summer peak. Already what we saw from the data of the first five months of the year, was an increase in arrivals compared to the record year in tourism – 2019. Investment in alternative forms of tourism will also lead in this direction – sports tourism, wellness tourism, conference tourism, marine tourism, cycling tourism, religious tourism and rural tourism
A cycle of 20 years has been completed for < /strong>Ch. Loizidis
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Yesterday's meeting also marked the end of an era for PASYXE, after a cycle of 20 years was closed for Haris Loizidis, who left the presidency of the association. So yesterday was the last time that Haris Loizidis addressed the assembly as president of PASYXE. Now, the new president of the Pancypriot Association of Hoteliers is Thanos Michaelidis, after a unanimous decision of the 23-member PASYXE board. The procedure took place in the early afternoon of Tuesday, after the end of the open part of the annual general meeting of PASYXE held in a hotel in Nicosia. departure of Loizides. He is the owner and CEO of the Thanos Hotels group which owns three five-star hotels – Anassa, Annabelle and Almyra. Until recently he was the president of PASYXE Paphos.
It is noted that while in the previous period interest had been expressed by other persons in claiming the leadership of PASYXE, however, Mr. Michaelidis was elected without an opponent. Official announcements from PASYXE will be made today.
