Vaccination of all staff best way to promote Cyprus as safe destination says minister

The best marketing for tourism would be the vaccination of all people working in the industry, showing that Cyprus is a safe country to visit, Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides said on Tuesday during a speech to hoteliers.

Petrides, who was speaking at the hotel association (Pasyxe)’s 43rd conference, said that this would be of great importance for the tourism industry “in our effort to show that Cyprus is not just a hospitable country because it offers nice gastronomy or nice sun or nice attractions.”

It must be shown that “Cyprus is a hospitable country because it also provides safety at a time of a pandemic, and this is very important in the new era we are living in.”

Despite the extra spending because of the pandemic, which has exceeded €2.5bn so far, the government has also boosted development spending that is to a great extent linked with efforts to upgrade the tourist product, the minister said.

He stressed the need to invest in other forms of tourism like independent tourism, but also tap other markets.

“To have balanced growth in the economy there must be balanced growth in tourism,” he said. “We must work together. It is a combination of government policies and private initiatives.”

Speaking at the same event, Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios said Cyprus should tap into EU tourism markets before the end of the pandemic, since afterwards, Europeans will again travel to other destinations.

Cyprus’ main tourism markets, the UK, Russia, and Israel, are not EU members.

Perdios said at the moment the only region in the world that presents a framework of stability for trips abroad is the EU and its member states.

Pasyxe chairman Haris Loizides said that the first half of 2021 has already been lost for the tourist sector, while uncertainty continues to prevail.

He added that developments in the main markets that interest Cyprus, ie Britain and Israel did not allow for a better flow of tourist arrivals during the first half of the year.

But he pointed out that “we are activating a plan to exit the crisis, expecting better days for tourism during the second half of the year with the hope to have a dynamic return in 2022”.

Cyprus has seen a 60 per cent drop in flights in the first half of the year, while last year passenger transport fell by 54 per cent.

The island has implemented a traffic light categorisation of countries and created an online portal — Cyprus Flight Pass — where passengers can complete all the necessary formalities in a quick and easy way and receive permission to fly to Cyprus.

From July 1, Cyprus will accept a digital certificate for travel (EU Digital COVID Certificate (EUDCC)).

It has also offered incentives to airlines to include Cyprus in their flight destinations when there there was little or no connectivity in the past.

The budget of the incentive plan for the period of July to December 2021 is €8.8m.

It is expected that, through this plan, the average route occupancy rate will rise to 74 per cent.

It is also expected that about 46 airlines carrying 880,000 departing passengers to 110 destinations would benefit.

In May 2020, passenger traffic at Larnaca and Paphos airports was 9,887, while a year later, passenger traffic reached 250,147.