Filenews 23 May 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
Little by little, the commercial and historical centre of Pafos is coming back to life. Five years after the completion of the largest in scale and expenditure project of regeneration and modernization ever undertaken in the city and with the restrictions of the pandemic being abolished one after the other, more intense than ever is the traffic in the historical part of Pafos, both in terms of traffic and in terms of commercial activities.
However, the grumblings and protests about the one-sided direction that has been given and is now consolidated in this development, are intensifying among the traditional shopkeepers of the region, but also members of the municipal authority. And this, since the renovated historical and commercial centre of the city has been transformed in the last three years into the epicentre of the nightlife of Pafos, but in the field of commercial traffic and the support of retail stores. The stakeholders complain that not only is this not developing but it is increasingly declining.
The assumption of both municipal councillors and traders in the area is that despite the continuous efforts and the campaign to attract visitors on a permanent basis, the situation is still far from being as satisfactory as it was thought it would be when the redevelopment works began.
"The effort has come to fruition, only as far as nightlife is concerned," they point out. "In terms of the movement of the shops, however, we are in the same pre-redevelopment denominator."
The frustration between the vast majority of shopkeepers and others involved in the retail trade in the Pafos shopping centre has been growing in recent times, as things in the city continue to move sluggishly, despite the lifting of restrictions on the pandemic and the ever-increasing reintroduction of activities such as tourism. However, traders' representatives say, market traffic is still at very low levels, except in the case of some large department stores.
"This is further proof of the correctness of believing that the shock from the pandemic and its economic impact will make citizens wary of how they manage their money for a long time," market officials stressed. "Now, we can confidently say that things in Paphos are worse than what the economic operators and businessmen of the province previously thought about the functioning of the market under the conditions of the pandemic, except for the catering part."
These bodies pointed out yesterday to "F" that it is now clear that the situation will not improve immediately in terms of economic indicators, even if in practice the operation of the retail trade now looks smooth, since even before the situation with the pandemic is fully normalized, the exogenous factor of the war in Ukraine came to further weigh on the economic climate.
"It is unfortunately increasingly clear," said a competent agent, "that immediately after the pandemic, came the unprecedented surge in prices on all goods, which understandably makes people even more cautious in their moves. And of course, the last thing that will concern people will be the immediate start of their plans for consumption habits, beyond basic necessities."
