Filenews 14 September 2021 - by Dora Christodoulou
Among the many negatives for the tourism industry of Pafos due to the pandemic, something "positive" emerged: Along with the tourists who were the driving force of the economy of the province, the "tourists of compensation", who claimed damages of hundreds of thousands of euros from hotels in previous years, were also lost.
The "tourism of compensation", although it had been greatly mitigated in the last two years before the coronavirus, was still a permanent source of unforeseen problems and defamation for the hotel industry of Paphos and Cyprus in general. The sharp decline in the tourist flow from Britain in this two-year period due to the pandemic, has at least cleared the landscape from this practice, hotel industry officials point out, considering that in the post-coronavirus era similar practices will no longer have space and the ability to appear.
Speaking to "F", the member of PASYXE Pafos, Marios Vassiliou, pointed out that there were thousands of British tourists who returned to their country after their holidays in Cyprus or other destinations and immediately resorted with the encouragement and advice of deft agents, to demands against the hotels where they took vacations, putting forward arguments for problems of a mainly medical nature that they supposedly faced during their stay in Cyprus.
"Around the industry that had been set up to claim compensation", stresses Mr. Vassiliou, "there were some who are called "ambulance lawyers", i.e. "ambulance lawyers", because they instruct people to file complaints demanding compensation. And their own remuneration is a function of whether the tourist receives compensation and how much.
Tourists used to invoke, when they returned home, a medical problem that cannot be proven, mainly gastrointestinal problems that they claimed to have suffered because of the food in the hotel.
The executive of PASYXE Pafos points out that in essence the hands of the hoteliers were tied, since almost in their entirety the hotels of Cyprus had been forced in recent years to accept the signing of contracts with British and other tourist giants for the advent of tourism. And in these contracts, he stresses, unfortunately there is also a provision that if their customer demands compensation for something he suffered during his vacation, the hotel is obliged directly to compensate him.
"Through these lawyers, therefore," Marios Vassiliou points out, "the claims of the tourists were sent to the tour operators and they in turn forwarded them to the hotels, demanding compensation, regardless of whether it is not proved that this is true. Unfortunately, our scope for reaction was minimal. Since the tourist traffic giants cover the occupancy rates of our units at 70 or 90%, you can't tell them anything."
These ever-increasing demands, however, have forced the hoteliers of the Republic and the tourism industry to take measures to deal with the problem, with the result that the consequences for tourists who falsely make such accusations are no longer negligible. As a result of this reaction, Mr Vassiliou said it was a sharp drop in the exploitation of the gaps that existed in the last two years and today this practice, as a result of the pandemic, will completely disappear.
