Filenews 28 August 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The report that if we also had Russian tourists things would approach perfect, is constant in the assessments of those involved in the tourism industry of Paphos. However, and without the visitors from the second most important tourist market for Cyprus, no one in the city of Aphrodite can refute that the summer we are going through is strongly reminiscent of the summer of 2019, when the highest occupancy and the largest number of visitor arrivals we have ever met were recorded. Having the good fortune of Paphos being the number one destination of the British in Cyprus, at a time when they too fully resumed their holiday program, the city enjoys a summer of mass arrivals that we do not find today on the eastern side of the island.
In the days of August, the occupancy of tourist beds in Paphos reached up to 90%, an all-time "high" that we were close to forgetting existed in this three-year period due to the pandemic. The representatives of PASYXE Paphos express their full satisfaction with the current situation, while pointing out that the situation could be even better, if the very important problem with the unrest in many European airports did not appear.
Since June, the president of Paphos hoteliers, Thanos Michaelides, tells "F", the occupancy of the Paphos units was very satisfactory given the conditions prevailing with the pandemic and war in Ukraine, amounting to 70% of the available beds, while entering August we far exceeded 80% for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.
"And this, while we must not overlook that the flow of tourists is still affected by the ongoing turmoil in the travel chain at airports and airlines abroad with the cancellation of flights or with the change of flight schedules," he emphasizes. "This situation not only creates inconvenience to tourists who have already begun their holiday schedule, but also maintains a doubt and concern to those who plan to travel later in summer or autumn. Already, a slight weakening has begun in the trend of future bookings, as more and more citizens across Europe are waiting until the last minute to see if the data will allow them to have uninterrupted holidays or if it will be better to avoid them."
And if today's flows of visitors cause great satisfaction, the concern does not cease to exist for tomorrow: In particular, explains Mr. Michaelides, the cost of energy affects tourism negatively and consequently the cost of tickets, which has reached quite high levels, resulting in visitors with limited financial resources now having difficulty travelling, because the air ticket price in some cases reaches the amount of the cost that was paid until recently for the whole package holiday.
"Nevertheless, the occupancy of hotel units this year is much better than the previous two years, even under the conditions of a difficult year", he points out, "a fact that causes particular satisfaction in our province. In the tourism industry of Paphos it is known that visitors from the English market play a leading role, which is fortunate to have such momentum this year given the losses from the Russian market.
If we had to put a title, says the president of PASYXE Paphos, it would be "a very satisfactory summer, a very difficult winter". And this, since as he explains, after October everything indicates that the drop in the tourist flow will be significant:
"I would say based on pre-bookings, expressions of interest and other data that we see, that special interest in holidays in Paphos is also recorded in the months of September and October. Of course, under normal conditions these two months would have been much better, but mutatis mutandis we must be satisfied today.
Where things get very difficult is in the winter, November to March 2023,. We will have, I believe, a significant problem. The onslaught of inflation and the cost of energy internationally will force a large part of Europe's population not to plan or even think about winter holidays.
An additional parameter to these difficulties is the expensive tickets due to the energy situation, but also the ongoing difficulties in main European airports".
In this less optimistic climate of the post-summer era, Thanos Michaelides estimates, the hotels of Paphos and Cyprus in general will not remain unaffected.
"I don't imagine a lot of hotels staying open," he says. "The fixed cost of operating a hotel is very high, regardless of occupancy. Now think of a unit with little or no occupancy, how unbearable the cost will be for it to remain open."
Supporting the impressive figures from the international arena is, for the tourism industry of Pafos, the contribution of the domestic tourist flow. The pancyprian campaign of ETAP Paphos for the promotion of the province in cooperation and with the support of the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, which was established in recent years, is a steady success in terms of receiving its messages and the interactivity of the public with the messages.
This year's campaign started at the end of May. According to the president of ETAP, Kyriakos Droussiotis, the campaign had the immediate aim of strengthening the actions taken to place the district of Paphos in the first preferences of the inhabitants of Cyprus for domestic tourism, a fact that has been achieved to the absolute extent, as shown by the occupancy of its hotel units.
"Visitors, in addition to the very attractive holiday packages for all categories of tourist accommodation", he emphasizes, "have the opportunity to enjoy rich programs in communities, to tour the priceless archaeological and other points of interest of Paphos, to go to wine-producing communities, to visit the beautiful villages and the countryside of Paphos, to visit unique churches and monasteries, to walk in the picturesque harbour and taste gastronomic creations".
The period of August was the proof, stressed Mr. Droussiotis, of the successful campaign, since on the days of the Cypriot holidays the city was flooded with local visitors who have made Paphos their first choice for the August holidays.
Domestic tourism, however, shows a noticeable difference this year from the past two years, emphasizes the president of PASYXE Paphos: "Being essentially on the opposite trajectory to the imported tourism, this year it was reduced compared to the two previous summers. And this is explained by the fact that travel abroad is now done with the lifting of any restriction, so many Cypriots, who during the two years of the pandemic could not travel outside, this year did so.
On the contrary, in the previous two summers when there were significant health and other restrictions, all our compatriots enjoyed domestic tourism. However, the local visitor is no longer an important parameter in the planning of Pafos".
It has opened up to new markets
An important component for the tourist "launch" of Paphos seems to be its penetration into new tourist markets. According to the hoteliers and the representatives of the recreation centres, Paphos now has the particularity and the significant advantage of attracting tourism from European destinations that were not previously in its program and this thanks to Ryanair's flight schedule.
Indicative is the position of a businessman with decades of activity in the field of catering in Kato Paphos, Andros Papiris, who, speaking to "F", pointed out that for the first time in decades in the port and pier of the city appear on a systematic basis and with increasing numbers of visitors from countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Baltic states, but also France and Italy. "These are markets that have never been a traditional 'target group' for Paphos", he emphasizes. "And yet, now in the port their presence is almost all year round. This is of course not unrelated to Ryanair's flight schedule, which, no matter how much we complain about other issues, we cannot overlook the fact that in the places where it operates it creates tourism data. And the fortunate thing for Paphos is that our airport is now an important base of the company throughout Europe".
Tourism professionals on the coastal front have one more reason to smile beyond the crowds they experience every day: Even the last, as Mr. Papiris characteristically emphasizes, the risk of defamation of Paphos was avoided, as a result of the construction site that prevailed in the heart of the tourist area until the beginning of summer.
"Fortunately, traffic on the Paphos coastal front has now been normalized after the creation of the large parking lot of the Archaeological Park, which was closed due to the works being done to redevelop the area and to move the public transport infrastructure," he explains. "The re-use of the large parking lot came at the right time, since the massive start of the tourist season has "sunk" Paphos in visitors during this period. As a result of the lack of adequate parking spaces until recently, there were on a daily basis queues of cars hundreds of metres in length, tourist buses that were forced to disembark their passengers in the middle of the road, a delay in leaving the coastal front, which was reminiscent of large cities with a serious traffic problem and therefore intense irritation everywhere.
This situation has now changed since the new landscaped parking space was given for use to visitors, even if the works within it are not fully completed. This fact vindicated our positions that even if the project was not completed, it could be used due to the huge number of visitors".
