Filenews 5 June 2022 - by Adamos Adamou
The first official results for tourism, which mainly concern the spring period, confirm the potential for travel to and from Cyprus, despite the loss of the Russian market.
Tourist arrivals in the first four months of this year exceed half a million, while passenger traffic, as announced by the managing company of the Cypriot airports Hermes Airports, seems to have been handled by the two airports of around two million passengers.
The comparison, in fact, even with 2019 is no longer so frightening, since tourist arrivals so far amount to 78% of those of the first quarter of 2019, while passenger traffic in the first months of the year corresponds for the moment to 73% of the traffic that existed at airports in the first five months of 2019.
Speaking to "F", Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios and commenting on the data of the Statistical Service for arrivals of the first quarter said that these confirm that we are on track "to do better than in 2021" and that the goal set in this direction is achievable. We note that tourist arrivals in the period January - April 2022, amounted to 534,040, compared to 55,973 in the corresponding period of 2021, with 246,556 in the period January - April 2020, as well as with 686,783 arrivals during the period January - April 2019.
Inflation is not afraid
Asked whether rising inflation, i.e. accuracy, which is troubling all European countries and not just Cyprus, can overturn the data so far, he appeared reassuring. For now, he said, it's not something that seems to affect the mood for travel and the momentum that began. He also added that he believes that the summer movement, at least until the end of August, will be very good and will not be affected by inflation. As he explained, this is due to several reasons, including the fact that many people have not travelled due to the pandemic for two years, but also that many who intend to travel this year will travel with packages that were booked and paid for in 2019 and 2020 without ever being able to use them. Mr. Perdios acknowledged, however, that if the intense inflationary trends continue, then things will become more difficult this winter for tourism, but possibly for the new year.
Packages with Jordan
In 2023, it is not excluded that in the meantime, the effort that is in its last stage to promote joint tourism packages with Jordan will also be tested. Mr. Perdios recently visited the country and confirmed, as he said, the intention of the two sides to promote common packages, with the aim of operating the whole project from next year. Despite the discussions that have taken place with other neighbouring states, which continue to some extent, Mr. Perdios said that Jordan, after a long investigation that took place, is considered to be the most ready country for this step for many reasons. The country, he said, is at about the same level of attracting arrivals as us - it attracts around five million tourists - and also faces the same challenges in terms of its air connectivity. This means that some routes that Jordan has we do not have, or we have and Jordan does not have. We can work on them in combination, so that there are trips to both countries. In this, a big role will be played, according to the minister, by Royal Jordanian Airlines which is, as he said, the link in the whole effort, which concerns not only the USA to which the company flies, but also other destinations such as Canada, perhaps Japan, in the future India, possibly Korea and even some European countries to which we do not currently have connectivity, like Spain and Portugal. The company, he said, strategically seeks to increase air connectivity between Jordan and Cyprus, namely Larnaca and Amman, which is already important and "this is very important and good, because the more flights it has between Larnaca and Amman, the easier it will be for us to sell common tourist packages".
According to Mr. Perdios, the thought is that the tour operators operating in Jordan and dealing with incoming tourism in Jordan, now, due to the frequent flights that exist between Jordan and Cyprus, can sell Cyprus at the same time, with benefit for themselves and in their revenues, but also to the airline, which will therefore sell more air tickets. In this context, the cooperation that will be developed will mainly concern co-advertising and generally promotional costs with Jordanian tour operators.
Hermes Airports: Weekly flights increase further in June
The dynamics that began to exist at Cypriot airports were also confirmed by the managing company of the airports, with the publication, last week, of the data on passenger traffic in May. According to Hermes Airports, in May about 885,000 passengers travelled to and from Larnaka and Paphos airports, an increase of 63,000 passengers from the same month last year. According to Hermes, passenger traffic in May stands at 78.3% of the corresponding month of 2019, a year in which a record number of passenger traffic was recorded at Larnaka and Paphos airports.
In the first five months, passengers travelling to and from Larnaka and Paphos airports amounted to 2.5 million, compared to 480,000 in the corresponding period last year. As Hermes Airports reports, in the first five months there were two million passengers more than in the corresponding period of 2021 with the total number accounting for 73% of traffic in the same period in 2019. The company suggests that the increase in passenger traffic will continue, as we enter the summer for good, since it notes that based on the data so far, the flights from Larnaka and Paphos airports for June are expected to increase from 645 to about 704 flights per week. He also notes that the total air seats available in May for Larnaka Airport were at 692,000, recording an increase of 364,000 seats compared to 2021 and that the average air occupancy rate of the aircraft was 80.5% (83.3% arriving and 77.7% departing passengers).
The total traffic of Larnaka airport for May was 558,000 (290,000 arriving and 268,000 departing passengers), while the markets with the best performance for Larnaca were the United Kingdom (141,000), Greece (104,000), Germany (47,000), Israel (30,000) and Sweden (29,000). The total available seats at Paphos airport last month were 379,000, with an increase of 316,000 seats compared to 2021. The average air occupancy rate for Paphos was 85.5% (87.9% arriving and 83.2% departing passengers). The total traffic for Pafos airport amounted to 325,000 (167,000 arriving and 157,000 departing passengers). According to Hermes Airports, the markets with the best performance in Paphos were the United Kingdom (160,000), Poland (24,000), Greece (23,000), Israel (20,000), Italy (16,000), Germany (10,000), Hungary (9,000), the Netherlands (9,000), France (8,000) and Jordan (7,000).
