Filenews 8 March 2021 - by Dora Christodoulou
For the first time in the annals of the port of Kato Paphos, traffic to the navel of the province's tourism industry remains at an unprecedented low level for an entire year. This is what the operators of the land area of the port argue, referring to an image that is far from the previously daily crowds regardless of the season.
Those active in the catering sector speak of a drastic blow to the commerciality of the land area, on the one hand, of course, because of the pandemic, and on the other hand because of the new exit conditions created by the redevelopment of the city's shopping centre and the launch of rents in the area even before everything is "buried" by the consequences of the crown.
"The reality is that the port relies over time on foreign visitors and less on locals," a source said. "Recently, however, culminating in this year, the decline in tourist traffic is unprecedented, since in the all inclusive, which has already affected us for the last 2-3 years, this year the complete absence of tourists from main tourist markets has been added.
Similarly, the redevelopment of the historic centre of Paphos has created a habit for The Pafites to prefer the recreation centres of the upper city, when we are open according to the decrees, resulting even on weekends, when Pafites traditionally descended on the port, the traffic is now less than half".
Concerned with the region's food industry, they told "F" that the last padlock that entered a well-known large fish tavern was the last link in the chain of business departures from the port, which they attribute in addition to the increase in rents in the area, even before the port began to experience the painful decisions to tackle the pandemic.
"Both this particular fish tavern, which has been a padlock since Christmas 2019, and a café and ice cream shops in the same area that preceded it," they said, "could no longer cope with the drastic increase in rents in the port, even in combination with the strict spatial restrictions applied to make public spaces more orderly. For this reason, they preferred to leave the port and operate in other areas, with significantly lower rents, before of course the pandemic reached us, which ravaged everything.".
These data, highlighted by operators of the land area of the port, have created an unusual image for the bustling area, with closed premises that exude wilderness, where until recently traffic was observed almost 24 hours a day.
