MPs tell government to come up with a plan for Pernera

Lawmakers on Tuesday called on the government to quickly come up with a plan to regenerate the Pernera area in Paralimni, said to be regressing as a tourist attraction with an adverse impact on local businesses.

The matter was discussed at the House commerce committee, where chair Kyriacos Hadjiyiannis of Disy gave the tourism junior ministry three weeks to deliver a comprehensive plan.

He also expressed disappointment that deputy minister for tourism Costas Koumis did not show up at the committee despite being summoned.

Hadjiyiannis referred to the fallout on businesses, initially due to the coronavirus pandemic and then the conflict in Ukraine.

Regarding Pernera, he described it as an area “that is wasting away as a result of the pandemic and the war.”

He asked what local government is doing to revitalise the area.

Yiannos Mavroyiannis from the junior ministry for tourism said the Pernera locality has 26 hotels with a total of 5,000 beds. Ten of the hotels – with about 2,000 beds – are closed.

“The area lags behind in infrastructures, there are no spaces for a family to visit, no stores,” he added.

Meantime Pernera cannot compete with the nearby Protaras resort, which acts as a “magnet” drawing the bulk of tourists there.

Another ministry official said Pernera has not bounced back like other areas have.

She said that back in January 2022, the ministry had set a goal for three million tourists; after the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine, that target was revised down to 2.3 million tourists. But in the end actual arrivals – 3.2 million – superseded expectations.

For his part, Panayiotis Constantinou, a representative of the Hotels’ Association (Pasyxe), said that sanctions on Russia have affected all of Cyprus.

“In the Famagusta district we’ve seen the biggest impact, as we got only 60 per cent of arrivals from Russia and Ukraine, approximately 525,000 tourists.”

The Pernera area especially had been over-reliant on the Russian market.