Filenews 20 October 2022
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Hungarian authorities in relation to the exchange of know-how for the promotion of health and wellness tourism in Cyprus, is signed tomorrow, in Budapest, by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Savvas Perdios.
The memorandum will be signed by Mr Perdios and the Hungarian Foreign Minister.
"Hungary is considered an advanced country in this form of tourism and we want to acquire know-how, which will help us in the promotion and development of the sector," said Mr. Perdios from Budapest, where he is for contacts.
According to Mr. Perdios, the collection of know-how will help the Deputy Ministry, in view of the announcement of the plan for the creation of infrastructure in hotels for the provision of health, wellness, medical tourism and assisted living services, which has been included in the national Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The plan concerns funding of €10 million and is expected to be announced at the end of the year or at the beginning of 2023 with a duration of four years, the Deputy Minister of Tourism added.
Mr. Perdios is visiting Hungary for contacts with tourist operators, while previously he was in Vienna for contacts in the Austrian capital, as the markets of the European Union now present the greatest prospect in terms of tourist arrivals, following the loss of the Russian market. He noted that arrivals from the Hungarian market set a historic record, also supported by WizAir and Ryanair flights.
"It turned out this year that Austria and Hungary are recording significant momentum," he said.
As Mr. Perdios mentioned, tourist arrivals from the Hungarian market recorded an increase of 63%, compared to 2019, while from Austria they recorded an increase of 53%. The largest percentage increase is recorded by arrivals from Poland with 130%. It is followed by France with 105%, while Denmark recorded an increase of 63% and 28% by Germany. In fact, estimates that arrivals from Poland would be negatively affected due to the country's proximity to the war zone are refuted.
In 2022 the basis of comparison due to the "new reality"
Asked about the prospects for 2023, Savvas Perdios said that the Deputy Ministry will wait for the end of this year in order to draw up the targets for next year.
With arrivals, despite the loss of the Russian market, exceeding 2.5 million in the period January - September and being close to 80% of the corresponding arrivals of 2019, the record year of Cypriot tourism, the Deputy Minister of Tourism stressed that 2019 can no longer be considered the basis of comparison due to the new reality brought about by the war in Ukraine.
"The comparison cannot be made on the basis of 2019 because the Russian market is absent. The new reality has more to do with 2022. We will take many years to see the numbers of 2019 in terms of the Russian market", Mr. Perdios estimated.
However, he acknowledged that 2023 will be another difficult year, to stress, however, that, "this does not mean that people will not travel because of the inflation".
Estimates and data show that total tourist arrivals will stabilize between 75% and 80% of 2019, he said.
Flights are maintained in winter
In relation to the winter months, Mr. Perdios said that based on the indications so far, the bookings of the coming months will be from individual travellers and last minute travellers.
Mr. Perdios noted, however, that the flights, many of which concern December, are retained.
He said there will be 65 flights a week from the UK, 38 from Israel, 25 from Germany, 23 from Poland, 13 from Lebanon, 13 from Austria, 13 from Romania, 13 from Bulgaria, 10 from Hungary, 8 from Italy, and 6 from Serbia and France.
"We have flights, and in fact the airlines' schedule reaches the levels of 2019 this winter," Mr. Perdios said, noting that if we take into account that flights do not include the Russian market, this "means that flights from the EU are more numerous than in 2019".
