Cyprus Mail 13 May 2020 - by Jean Christou
British tourists desperately needed if Cyprus is to have a chance of salvaging anything from this year's season
As the EU on Wednesday left member states to their own devices on reopening to tourism, Cyprus’ transport minister warned early in the day against rushing to buy air tickets saying it would be next week before the steering committee would submit an action plan to the cabinet for the reopening of the island’s airports, essentially shuttered since March 21.
Until the situation becomes clearer as regards air travel, Yiannis Karousos advised people not to rush buy airline tickets since they face seeing their trips cancelled and being out of pocket. Speaking to state broadcaster CyBC radio, Karousos said that Cyprus’ current ban on commercial flights, which expires on May 28, will probably be extended to June 9. Decrees are issued every 14 days on the travel ban.
Karousos said the government would first evaluate EU suggestions made on Wednesday, and the steering committee would outline timetables and the various stages envisioned to restore flights. It will also list countries with which Cyprus could re-establish flight connectivity, he said.
Brussels on Wednesday pushed for a gradual reopening, saying it was not too late to salvage some of the summer tourist season while keeping people safe. Its proposals involving social distancing, masks, contact tracing apps among other issues, were praised by European tourism industry groups as a first step, but are non-binding on the 27 member states.
Also, it emerged through the Brussels meeting that European governments were pressing ahead with their own plans to reopen at different speeds, depending on national circumstances.
In Cyprus, although there is optimism in some quarters that the second half of the year can still be saved, others believe that even if some flights resume, it does not necessarily mean Cyprus will benefit. Many Europeans have already cancelled their holiday plans. On top of that, for Cyprus everything depends on its main markets – the UK and Russia, and their travel policies, like most countries are still unclear. The two countries account for around 75 per cent of all arrivals.
On Tuesday, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said British people are unlikely to be able to go on international holidays this summer. Asked on ITV’s This Morning show if people should accept that the normal summer holiday season for travelling abroad was cancelled, he replied: “I think that’s likely to be the case.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday the government planned to introduce a 14-day quarantine for international travellers to prevent a second spike in the virus.
According to the Guardian on Wednesday, EU countries with “similar overall risk profiles” on the pandemic could open to tourists from each other’s countries.
“Restrictions on travel should first be lifted in areas with a comparable epidemiological situation and where sufficient capabilities are in place in terms of hospitals, testing, surveillance and contact tracing capacities,” the paper reported, citing the EU proposals.
“More work is needed,” J Scott Marcus, an expert on EU policy with the Brueghel think tank in Brussels, told the Cyprus Mail after the commission announced its proposals.
“They rightly recognise that certainty is needed from door to door for travel, and yet many of the measures have elements that need to reflect local circumstances – it might be difficult to reconcile these divergent needs.”
Some of the proposals were vague and ambiguous such as people being able to travel to places where “the spread of the disease has significantly decreased and stabilised for a sustained period of time, and is likely to remain stable with the increased tourist population”.
The approach of tying countries with similar risk profiles appears to echo murmurings of late about a Cyprus-Greece-Israel travel pact but even if this comes about, it is not likely to make a dent in numbers without some traffic from Cyprus’ two major players.
Doros Takkas, the president of the Famagusta hoteliers’ association branch of Pasyxe, told CNA on Wednesday the situation was bleak. He had talked to the three major Russian travel agents to glean their assessment of the situation in Cyprus and on the prospects of Russians going on holiday this year.
“Unfortunately, they do not see things looking very good because they believe that the government will not allow citizens to travel abroad,” he said.
Regarding the British market, Takkas said: “Everyone is aware of the bad situation in the country due to the coronavirus. However, we expect to see whether Boris Johnson’s government will take any other measures, including non-travel abroad in an effort to slow down the spread.”
Takkas said hotels and all businesses related to tourism in the Famagusta area were preparing for the new tourist season. Hoteliers were ready to open within 15-20 days from the day they are given the green light to do so, he added.
“We expect to see what will happen with the start of flights to and from Cyprus, with which countries we will have an air connections, and what protocols should be observed in terms of safety and health issues,” Takkas said.
He said discussions and exchanges of views were taking place daily online with all those involved in the hotel and wider tourism industry on how to kick-start the new season.
“However, everyone realises that most tour operators are more afraid of what will happen in their own countries and not so much in Cyprus,” he said, referring to the pandemic situation in both the UK and Russia.
“In Germany, another important market for our island, there is a setback, while the Scandinavian countries are also not doing well. At first there was an assessment that the situation in the Nordic countries was good, but today we see that on the contrary it is very bad,” Takkas added. “Given the prevailing data today in several countries around the world, and especially in Europe, the market from which Cyprus can draw tourism is extremely limited. The prospects are bleak for the whole world and especially for the hotel and tourism industry, ” he added.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Rosenbaum and Evie Andreou)
