Filenews 12 October 2025 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
The Government is asking for a change in the opening hours of catering and entertainment venues, with a bill that will address the gaps and weaknesses identified in the existing legal framework, with the aim of modernizing and improving the competitiveness of the Cypriot tourism product in the catering sector.
In particular, targeted opening hours are determined, per category and per type of premises, with the additional purpose of dealing with noise pollution. The bill will be put under the microscope of the parliamentary Trade Committee on Tuesday.
– Restaurants, taverns, pizzerias, cafes and snack bars will be able to operate every day from 6:00 in the morning until 1:30 in the morning of the next day.
– Pubs and bars will be able to remain open from 8:00 in the morning until 2:30 in the morning of the next day.
– The halls and venues of closed banquets will be open from Monday to Sunday from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the morning of the next day.
– Open-type banquet venues, i.e. outdoor ones, will remain open from 8:00 to 1:30 the next day.
– The closed-type music and dance centers will be open all days of the week, from 20:00 in the evening to 5:00 in the morning and the outdoor premises will be open from 20:00 to 1:30 in the morning.
– Discotheques and cabarets can remain open from Monday to Sunday from 20:00 to 5:00 the next day.
It is worth noting that the municipal or community council within the administrative boundaries of the catering and entertainment venues can decide to extend or reduce the opening hours for one hour and for six months a year, if they are convinced that there are special reasons.
Entry to a discotheque or cabaret will be prohibited to persons under the age of 17, even if accompanied by their parent or guardian. In addition, the responsibility for controlling the entry into the catering or entertainment area of a person under the age of 17 lies with the entrepreneur or the manager of the business or whoever is responsible for the catering and entertainment area.
At the same time, the bill also includes provisions to improve the regulation and operation of catering and entertainment venues, in order to strengthen public entertainment, public safety and support entrepreneurship in the sector.
Among other things, burdensome and anachronistic provisions are abolished, which have a negative effect on the development of business and investments, ways of providing services in the catering sector are improved, procedures that are deemed not to add value are abolished, and the administrative burden on entrepreneurs due to existing excessive and unnecessary procedures imposed on them is reduced.
Based on the bill, the following are abolished:
– Unnecessary, strict criteria related to building infrastructure and equipment.
– Categorization of recreation centers based on the items offered and their classification into classes, which is replaced by categorization of their premises into catering and entertainment venues.
– The obligation to submit price lists for approval by the competent authority.
Also, the protection of the safety and health of customers and staff of leisure centers is strengthened and provisions are introduced for the imposition of administrative fines, as well as the issuance of a court decree for the immediate suspension of catering and entertainment area operations.
