Hoteliers see quiet June, hope business will pick up in July

June is likely to see few visitors in Cyprus, but there is cautious optimism as far as July and August are concerned, according to Philokypros Roussounides, director general of the Cyprus Hoteliers’ Association.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency on Thursday, Roussounides said that the current epidemiological picture in the island allows for some hope, but that a positive summer for the tourism industry will also depend on the situation in other countries.

“We have very few bookings from abroad for June,” he said. “We were expecting some visitors from the Scandinavian countries and from Germany, but due to lockdowns and their governments advising against travelling abroad, our numbers are still down this month.

“At the moment, we can only wait for developments from other countries, especially from our traditional markets, namely the UK and Russia,” he added.

On Wednesday, the Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios told the Daily Telegraph that Cyprus “deserves to be placed in their green list” when the UK will update the country rating list on June 28.

Perdios travelled to London on Tuesday and briefed the British side on the island’s improved Covid-19 data. On Wednesday he flew to Athens to attend the UN World Tourism Organisation. He will travel to Moscow on Saturday to promote the restart of chartered flights to Cyprus.

“We are all hoping to be green-listed by the UK at the end of June, it will massively help our industry,” Roussounides said.

He also added that Cyprus is expecting chartered flights to be allowed from Russia, which he said will increase the number of visitors even more.

There are also hopes that tourism arrivals from Israel will pick up with stabilisation of the situation as regards Gaza, so that the flow can resume to previous levels, he said.

“We are ready to welcome back all visitors from abroad,” he said. “Our cautious optimism stems from our much-improved epidemiological picture, which we hope will soon lead us into the green category of all countries.”