Cyprus Mail 25 May 2020 - by Jonathan Shkurko
Hoteliers said on Monday that, despite the challenging time for the entire tourism sector, the timeline on the reopening of hotels set by the government gives hoteliers an opportunity to prepare themselves for the arrival of tourists given the new measures they must put in place.
Cyprus Hotels Association (Pasyxe) Director General Zacharias Ioannides told Cyprus Mail hotels would open from June 1 and tourists would begin arrival from June 9, and June 20, depending on where they are flying from.
Last Friday, the government outlined plans for the resumption of commercial flights from a select number of countries with low coronavirus infection rates to jumpstart Cyprus’ vital tourism sector.
Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said flights will begin in two phases, June 9 and 20, from two groups of countries selected by the government’s epidemiological team.
Karousos said hotels, which have been shut since the late March, when the government imposed a strict stay-at-home-decree, will be allowed to reopen their doors from June 1.
“This will give hoteliers an opportunity to be fully prepared, as they will have to train their staff with new measures to adopt prior to the reopening of their structures,” said Ioannides.
He added that the majority of hotels were already fully compliant with the health decrees issued by the health ministry during the pandemic and they had been for quite some time.
“Fortunately, the level of hotels in Cyprus is extremely high so implementing new safety customs will be a smooth operation for most hoteliers,” he added.
“Those high standards, however, will also be the biggest challenge for us this summer. Our visitors have gotten used to the level of excellence that hotels in Cyprus provide. We will have to be up to the task.”
Ioannides pointed out that hotels who hosted people in quarantine for the past two months might have an advantage when all units will be allowed to reopen.
“In a way those hotels will be in a better position to resume their normal operations as they have been operative for months and they have already trained their staff to deal with new rules and customs in place.”
With visitors from the UK and Russia, the two main tourism markets in Cyprus, not yet be allowed to travel to the country, alternative countries are being targeted by the government.
“Yes, a big part of what fuels the tourism market in Cyprus will be missing,” Ioannides admitted.
“That is why several operators have already established contacts with new markets. This whole situation might also be on opportunity for us to expand our range and start catering to tourists from countries that are normally not associated with Cyprus.”
However, many hoteliers are very worried that, despite the reopening, some structures will simply not be able to cope with a situation that is still unfolding before their eyes.
George Kassianos, training manager at Thanos Hotels Group, which controls The Anassa, Almyra and Annabelle hotels in Paphos told Cyprus Mail, hoteliers will definitely face challenges over the summer, the biggest of which will be to ensure that all health measures issued by the ministry of health will be respected.
“I think some hotels might remain closed during the summer and some others that will reopen on June 1 might have to close down for the summer if they don’t manage to keep up with the cost of operations due the lack of visitors.” He said.
Kassianos also claimed that targeting new tourism markets was also not as easy as it sounded.
“Attracting visitors from countries not traditionally associated with Cyprus takes time and thorough planning,” he said.
“However, we might have an opportunity to attract more visitors from Germany, provided airlines will organise enough flights to Cyprus. Scandinavia and Austria are also good possibilities, but they are smaller markets, more difficult to attract.”
Last week, Deputy Minister for Tourism Savvas Perdios painted a relatively bleak picture for this summer’s tourism numbers, claiming that the realistic goal is to have at least 30 per cent of the visitors that came to the country last year, which was over four million.
Meanwhile, Cyprus Airways announced on Monday they would offer flights to Greece, Switzerland and Israel this summer.
Flights to Athens will start departing from Laranca airport on June 9, whereas other destinations will be available in early July.
Specifically, the airline will be able to operate flights to Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Rhodes and Skiathos, Zurich, Geneva and Tel Aviv.
“After months of inactivity we are finally ready to resume our operations,” said George Mavrokostas, chief operating officer at Cyprus Airways.
“As a Cypriot company we feel it is our duty to support the government’s efforts to overcome the challenges of this difficult period and contribute to the rapid recovery of our economy.”
