The Cypriot tourism crossed another reef on Thursday, after Cyprus managed to remain in the orange category of Britain, a development that does not extinguish the expectations for the flow of British tourists in the near future.
The most important market for Cypriot tourism “opened” in fact only last month and exclusively for vaccinated travelers, since from July the British, if repatriated from orange destinations, do not need, as before, to be quarantined.
For the time being, the performance of the British market lags significantly behind other years, but also those of the Russian market, which proves to be a “lifeline” for tourism this year, however there are estimates and reservations to improve the flow of arrivals from Britain in September – October.
In view of the above, the general manager of PASYXE Filokypros Rousounidis characterized as a positive development the fact that Cyprus remained with the new evaluation of the English in the orange category. He said that the country's stay in the orange category, thanks to the stability of our epidemiological picture, allows for a modest optimism that the British market will boost arrivals in the near future, thus creating the conditions for a more bearable year. .
The general manager of PASYXE did not rule out a boost in arrivals and reservations to Cyprus and the fact that Turkey remained in the red category of England, despite the indications and reports that existed for its upgrade. The fact that Turkey remains in the red category, he said, will probably lead to some reservations to Cyprus, as our country is an alternative and safe option for travelers and tour operators. However, he said, everything remains fluid, due to the pandemic, and stressed the importance of improving the epidemiological image of Cyprus, in order to enhance tourist flows. The bet, he added, is for Cyprus to get out of the red category of the ECDC, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, something that would help greatly to increase the tourist flow from European markets wider and more specifically from Scandinavia. .
According to Mr. Rousounidis, the epidemiological picture of the country will determine in general the flow of arrivals in the coming period and especially in the two months of September – October.
All hopes in 2022 for a substantial recovery
At the same time, the general manager of PASYXE stated that the industry is holding a small basket, although the revised goal it has set for this year all shows that it will be achieved. The goal we set, he said, is this year to be better than last year, which seems that we can achieve it and hope, he added, that 2022 will be the beginning of the recovery of the tourism industry. Regarding the tourist traffic of August, Mr. Rousounidis said that the month seems to end better than last year and with an average occupancy of around 50% of the units. He acknowledged that this is largely due to the Russian market, since about 30% of arrivals come from Russia, but also that there is an influx of tourists from other markets with which Cyprus is connected, mainly European, which with work can in the future to develop into huge markets for Cypriot tourism.
As mentioned, however, for this year the goal of the industry is to improve the year compared to last year which was tragic. We note that last year tourist arrivals were reduced last year to 631,609 compared to almost four million in 2019 (3,976,777), recording a decrease of 84.1%. Revenues from tourism were reduced in 2020 to just 392 million euros, compared to 2.7 billion in 2019, recording a decrease of 85.4%. So far this year and specifically until July when available data are available tourist arrivals are estimated at 638,292 compared to 320,589 in the corresponding period of 2020, recording an increase of 99.1% and a decrease of 70.7% compared to the period January – July 2019 (2,181,994 arrivals). Revenues from tourism for the first five months available are estimated at 123 million euros compared to 115.3 million in the first five months of last year, recording an increase of 6.7% compared to 2020 and a decrease of 81.2% in compared to the period January – May 2019 (€ 652.8 million). On Monday, the Statistical Service is expected to announce the data on tourism revenues that existed in June this year.
Philenews
RUN and POWER Group: Enhanced Living Experience.
