Paphos People

Here's an article in the news Dec. 2007


Cyprus Tourism on the Decline

Tourism in Cyprus is a vital force to its economy and the CTO are under pressure to recognise that their main economy needs serious addressing to stay alive. With a sense of urgency now prevailing, CTO Director Phoebe Katsouri states "it is essential that we move forward in a positive direction to meet targets."

In October arrivals fell by 2.8% compared to the same month last year, with 275,103 arriving compared to 283,046 in October 2006. Competitors are making huge investments in tourist infrastructure compared to Cyprus. During a workshop in Nicosia, Katsouri addressed key members of the tourist industry communicating a revised strategy in tourism development with a scope of implementations until 2010.

Hoteliers are being driven out of business due to the industry's decline, with plans to convert their premises into apartment blocks for long-term rents or sale. With an increase in availability in this type of accommodation, rents and sale prices will be highly competitive and result in less holiday accommodation to attract tourists. Chloe Ryan, an ex-patriate in Cyprus for six years says; "I first rented my apartment in 1994 when my rent was ?375 per month on a long-term annual contract. After two years I noticed an increase in available accommodation to rent and sourced a comparable apartment for less. When I spoke to my Landlady, she insisted I stayed and immediately reduced my rent to ?300. She informed me that to have a regular amount each month from a reliable tenant offered security and peace-of-mind." Ryan's case is one of many, with more and more properties available to rent, long-term rental rates are being slashed.

Zacharias Ioannides of the Cyprus Hotel Association claims that in dozens of smaller hotels and hotel apartments, the total of beds has reduced from 98,000 to 93,000 due to a change in status. Tourism is declining at a rapid rate in Cyprus due to a greater choice in other destinations, a delay in plans for the new Marina and golf courses, slow renovation in hotels and cultural centres, hotel closures, no rubbish clearance plans, to name a few. A staggering 42% of holiday accommodation owners are complaining of low occupancy and staff cuts as a result and are now looking to invest in property ownership development.

The CTO has claimed to proceed with plans to allow conversion of holiday accommodation representing 20,000 beds to apartment blocks. The plan is to allow for holiday home ownership investment. Hoteliers will be given incentives to upgrade and refurbish their establishments with a sum of 13 million euros being allocated. Panos Englezos, CTO Chairman says "an effort from all parties concerned is imperative to make a difference on a large scale." The reality is that the CTO has always made an attempt to increase tourism through corporate planning and lengthy discussion, alas pro-active action has been slow, if at all. What point is there having a great restaurant with an inexperienced Chef? Or for that matter a highly skilled team of Directors with no workforce or mentality to implement plans. The best domestic products will remain on the supermarket shelf if they are not promoted for sale. We are not dealing with rocket science, create your strategy and see it through to the bitter end, planning for interventions and resolution contingency.

Cyprus tourism officials are evading some of the real issues. No strategy plans are in place to clear the rubbish that litters beaches causing danger and disgrace. Major refurbishment programmes are taking place during seasonal highs with the Paphos Harbour looking like a building site preventing tourists from strolling. The increasing sight of building works, dumped washing machines, sofas, domestic refuse, and even broken-down vehicles is simply not attractive to tourists or ex-pats who feed the Cypriot economical growth.

Taxis are in abundance in Cyprus but costs are still high with charges from Larnaca airport to Paphos often being higher than a last minute flight booking from the UK. Complaints have been reported from visitors who describe beaches and certain areas as an eyesore with rubbish dumps destroying attractive scenery. Most visitors now stay in their holiday accommodation with little interest to venture out to see the Cyprus image portrayed in their glossy holiday brochure, feeling deceived. With an unmotivated team of staff who now service the tourist industry in restaurants, hospitality has reduced, with increasing complaints that foreign staff are unfamiliar with Cyprus displaying no knowledge of the Island or prime tourist attractions of ancient ruins and monuments.

Lefkos Phylactides, head of CTO tourist services predicts that 2007 would end with a 1% increase in arrivals from the UK, reaching 2.5 million with tourism generating a revenue base of CYP1 billion, representing a 7% increase over last year. The new revised plan aims for 1.4m tourists from the UK in 2010, assuming the plans will be implemented or will stay at infantile at discussion point. A suggestion of the new plan is to elect a Ministerial Committee who will meet every six months to assess progress and aim to cut all the red tape that halts Cyprus from development and progression. The public remain sceptical and only time will see results.

Scene The News

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Tourist arrivals suggest that tourism is not falling. It is merely not rising as rapidly as capacity. There is also a growing ex-pat population.

Will businesses be affected? Sure - if they all chase the same market. Cyprus business has always suffered from the 'kebab shop syndrome'. Someone comes up with a money making venture and before you know it there are copies on every street corner until there is insufficient business to keep any of them in profit and they nearly all go broke. Current favourites are estate agents (declining) garden centres and especially holiday club sales. If the castle is built on sand, it will fall down.

Will it continue to be a favourite holiday destination? Probably, but there are plenty of other places vying for the tourist pounds/euros etc.

Frankly I prefer it at this time of year when it is quiet.

I'm sure it's mentioned in the press more often than not that "arrivals" are on the increase.

I believe that statement, but with a high number of ex-pats owning properety in Cyprus/Paphos etc. that these arrivals are not so much the general run-of-the-mill tourist, who goes out to shop, eat, sight see each day, but they buy food and booze etc. from the supermarkets.
Most of the ex-pats have done the tourist thing often enough before, so are not shopping in the tourist area.

Having a business in the tourist area, I have seen a HUGE downturn in the habits and spending of the "tourist!.

AND

It's getting worse.

Maybe with the harbour road upgrade, it might (I hope ) see an upturn in tourism...........


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article from Cyprus Mail Dec. 7th 2007

Bleak outlook for future of tourism


Latvia set to surpass Cyprus as holiday hotspot

TOURISM FORECASTS for the next ten years show that Cyprus is earmarked to take only a 3.9 per cent share of the European tourist pie, making it only the 12th most popular of 26 destinations in Europe by 2017.

Figures presented by Angelos Loizou, a tourism expert with PriceWaterhouseCoopers at a conference organised by the Cyprus Hoteliers Association (PASYXE), show that by 2017, Latvia will have the lion’s share of visitors to Europe, grabbing 6.9 per cent of all tourists.

Cyprus will also have to compete with Lithuania at 6.5 per cent and Estonia 6.0 per cent. Greece will hold a 4.0 per cent share and most of the other traditional European destinations such as Ireland, Malta, Portugal, France, and Spain will fall in, around or under the three per cent mark, Italy is earmarked to fall to a 1.3 per cent share – the last on the list.

The top ten global destination in the next decade will be places such as China, India, Croatia and Vietnam, according to the figures.

Loizou also showed that despite a small increase in revenue in the past two years, tourist spending in Cyprus has actually dropped from a high of £454 per person in 2002 to £410 on average in 2006 although the figure is slightly up from a low of £391 in 2005, which was the worst for arrivals to Cyprus since before 1999.

The figures also show that the number of Britons visiting Cyprus this year has dropped 5.8 per cent to 1.2 million. The number of German visitors has fallen 10.4 per cent to 120,000.

Germany used to be the island’s second biggest market but has been overtaken by Russia, which now comprises 6.2 per cent of the market after growing 27.8 per cent this year alone to 138,836 tourist arrivals.

Sweden and Greece are also growing and coming in a close third to Germany. Visitors from Greece jumped 117 per cent this year to 118,979, and Swedes increased 30.6 per cent to take a 5.2 per cent share of the market with 117,094 visitors.

PASYXE chairman Haris Loizides in his address to the conference said the figures spoke for themselves, and added that the island’s hotels were now running on an average occupancy of 42 per cent.

“Unfortunately this is neither just the complaints or whining by hoteliers, as some consider it, and unfairly so in our opinion,” he said.

“With a 42 per cent average occupancy, we are unable to meet out obligations or meet those large investments required by the new conditions and intense competition.”

Commenting on the government’s strategic tourism plan 2007-2010, Loizides said the way things were going, by 2010 they would find themselves back where they were in 2001.

“If this were due to a slowdown in tourist movement, or the middle of a regional crisis our approach would be different but most of our competitors are recording impressive results, not only in arrivals and income but also in investment,” he said.

Loizides said he didn't intend to outline everything that should have been done or not done but despite many and repeated announcements and promises nothing concrete had yet come from the official side’s plans to withdraw and upgrade beds. The same applied to promised infrastructure, he said.

Loizides said he would be meeting Commerce and Tourism Minister Antonis Michaelides today and would submit a list of proposals, along with the “worrying messages” from abroad about the Cyprus market.

The reason Cyprus is losing tourist is because its becoming to damn expensive to come here, plus Air Operators are being charged a fortune for landing fee's & as it take twice as long to get here, as it does to Spain or anywhere else in Europe, people are deciding against coming here

Then those that do come here get ripped off by the price hikes, the complete rudeness of the locals & the state of the place, so either don't bother coming back or tell others not to bother

And the only reason more Ex-pats are moving out here is because the island is turning into Little Britain buy those already here, give it another 10 years & we'll out number the Cypriots

I think the tourist is not getting a good deal for his money,
this is what is driving them away.

yes we know why arrivals are up, more expats ..
but that wont help the tourist industry ..

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REACH 1000`s of PAPHOS CUSTOMERS EVERY DAY FOR A FRACTION OF WHAT THE OTHERS CHARGE
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Whilst the optimist and the pessimist argued that the whisky glass was either half full
or half empty ? .
I drank it .....
The opportunist..

People often quote that the flying distance dictates the price but we have just checked on comparable prices for two adults flying from Birmingham this weekend to Paphos and Tenerife (same flying times of 4½ hours.)

Tenerife comes to £301 all in with meals luggage tax etc. (Thos Cooke)
Paphos comes to £628 all in with meals luggage tax etc. (Thomsons)

Unless this disparity is sorted out then Cyprus will continue to suffer.

D&P

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Don & Pam
Our Paphos Photo Website

It has always been expensive to travel to Cyprus. In real terms it is now cheaper than it has ever been and the market, once a totally closed shop, is opening up to cheaper carriers.

The expression 'ripped off' is tediously over used. Of course prices have risen. Many of them directly attributable to the cost of oil and the fact that Cyprus now has to comply (half heartedly) with EU regulations. The fact that some people get ripped off is more a reflection of the fact that many of them who come here leave what few brains they had at home and lose all sense of reason when the sun shines. You cannot always protect people from their own stupidity. If something appears too good to be true, it invariably is.

I cannot understand the mentality of people who come here to escape Britain then try to turn the place back into the mess they left behind. Fortunately the majority of ex-pats don't last the course and return to the UK. They are the ones who cannot adapt to the cultural differences that somehow they failed to see until they had been here for a couple of years.

Nor have I ever found Cypriots especially rude. Most of the boorish behaviour has been from the British contingent. Like every other race there are good and bad in all of us. However one shouldn't confuse the Cypriot use of body language with rudeness. If someone greets you by turning up his or her nose, they are not snubbing you but greeting you. And have you noticed that more Cypriots now acknowledge driving courtesy with a wave - a practice they have caught from us? Ten years ago you simply would not have seen that.

We should be thankful that most of the host population has at least a smattering of English. How many of us can do the same in Greek, yet we complain that they are rude because they don't understand us. Then shout at them as though raised voices will make the words any more understandable.

Cypriots can be charming, friendly and especially hospitable but they have a casual approach to life that some find infuriating, and they can be ruthless in business.

As for the state of the place. It's a hot dusty middle eastern country, so what do you expect? And when the local authority puts some effort into making improvements - as it is now doing in Kato Paphos, everyone moans at the inconvenience.

Cyprus has its faults, like everywhere else, but apart from a few more buildings erected because we want to come here in large numbers, the place is still the same as it was 20 years ago. Long may it remain so.

When taking bookings for apartment .they love the look of it good price but some are put of when they see the price of flights. If you looking for some sun with the kids it is cheaper and closer to go to spain.( I love cyprus so will pay more to get there)
Tricia

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new me new life, , never forget my cyprus life and friends .

Don't want to quote the whole thing, as it's pretty long but that's a cracking post by KG - sums up the situation brilliantly in my opinion!

Just got mail Ba gatwick-paphos on sale from 22jan £49 Each way.
only till 29th March i will look later see how good it really is.
Tricia.

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new me new life, , never forget my cyprus life and friends .

Graham - spot on. It is no good moving to a "foreign" country and expecting the culture to bend to your expectations. I have observed that Cypriots don't feel the need to give you a ready smile. Instead they do exactly as Graham says and tip their head backwards slightly, thus appearing to snub their noses. To them it is enough. Brits expect a friendly smile. Americans probably expect some chat to accompany the smile. Different cultures.

It is a good job I am not precious and actually worked these things out. Living in Ineia I could become paranoid that they are all out to get me if I didn't know better.

It is good to see you on PP Graham. A voice of experience is a valuable asset to a new site.

Verity.

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Verity.

Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

http://coecyp.blogspot.com

From the circles i mix in there are plenty of Cypriot sweetheart, same as back in UK there were plenty of British ones.

Regarding the topic itself, Cyprus doesn't help itself to promote via new media like the internet. We have message boards, directory sites, pictures sites etc but these are run by enthousiasts or business owners, rather than a central tourism office.

Just one example , we are planning a week away in Switzerland and i can see transport routes and all manor of places to stay and things to do in the GoogleEarth program (various layers on).

Now with all those same layers on, i take a look at Cyprus and its a desert of information compared to Switzerland and most of Northern Europe, now if this relative lack of information is the same across all other media then its no wonder people won't "try" Cyprus as it just doesn't market itself as well as others.

EDIT : LMAO - I like the phpBB2 rudewords filter you have engaged !

I'd like to give my opinion,Hope you can stay awake to read it all !
We are talking about Cyprus as a holiday attraction here. When I go on holiday I do not watch the pennies but think I'm only here 2 weeks I'll eat what I want,drink what I want,go where I want and hire anything I like !
I have not been to the island for a year.When we decided that we would try living on the island ( in 2 yrs time)we decided to try other places for holidays. In my recent experience of visiting Kefalonia, Rhodes and Kos I can say without doubt, Cyprus is a more expensive destination to get to for both flights and accomodation and once you arrive there is a big difference in prices.
Paphos gets bad press and people do talk to their friends when they get home. They talk about the ridiculous situation at the airport on a Wed and Sat. The rip off taxi fares which are really off putting, lack of a bus service from the airport, the disaster waiting to happen pavements, the run down feel to large parts of TOTK road, the lack of good beaches( the best Coral Bay is only average)
the fact that in a lot of cases accomodation is only average at a high price and often in the wilds of willy. They complain about prices of food and drink in The Harbour and Bar Street areas and before anyone says well don't go there, they are probably the two most advertised areas of Paphos.
It's a good job that Paphos has a loyal number of older visitors who come ,year in year out to the same hotels in the same weeks of the year come what may ! ( Eventually this lot will die ! what then)
To the younger and in particular families Paphos is too expensive and falling well down the pecking order when compared to the opposition, trust me, I've recently holidayed in those other places mentioned which are not that much closer to the UK then Paphos, in better accomodation and better resorts with a nicer ambience for much much less.
At the end of the day if you visited a place on holiday and didn't feel you were getting value for money, would YOU go back?

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So close yet so far away

Gary,

So having visited these other places, are you still 100% commited to coming to Cyprus or as it made you think twice about retiring here at all

Pete,
No. We are 100% committed to trying our luck full time in Cyprus, my previous comments were solely viewing the island as a holiday destination.
Whilst I have seen prettier places at a cheaper cost of living, they do not offer us cheap tax on our pension, a certain love/acceptance of the British, a solid ex pat community/scene ( which is important to us) and some form of activity during the winter months.
Whilst the other Greek places we have visited are, in our opinion, better for holidays at the moment than Cyprus, they do not seem to come anywhere near when it comes to permanent living.
Gary

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So close yet so far away

Gary,

Thats good to hear mate, so maybe one day, you'll enjoy a pint or 2 with me & the other TOONS over here

Yes deffo Pete,
And it won't be the first time I've watched my team win while in the George and Dragon !
Watched them in there a few times on my visits!
I watched them win at Boro in Sept 05 in there and was the only Mackem amongst about 15 Smogs. When the winner went in you could have my roar down at the airport!
I'll be in even when you're lot are on. I'll sort you lot out and if any ex forces step out of line I'll let our lass put them in their place !
Bring it on !
Gary

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So close yet so far away

not sure there'll be any forces in there mate, just us TOON supporters, so you're welcome to join us

I said EX forces as someone on here keeps telling us he is EX forces doesn't he. He might scare me but he won't scare wor lass we still have an outside netty ya kna !
Gary

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So close yet so far away

Whether markets are dragged, led or simply left to find a lowest common denominator all holiday resorts have to adapt to the prevailing demand.

Look at Benedorm, LLoret del ..., Costa B.... Rothesay, Brighton etc etc etc all were thriving holiday resorts and serviced the demand as it was previously. The expectations of holidaymakers changed, the demand moved elsewhere so they had to change to survive.

This often meant spending massive sums of money on redevelopment, regeneration and remarketing as in the case of many European destinations. Or in the case of many more the facilities at destinations had to individually aapt to the market available to them.

Benedorm invested in infrastructure and reinvented itself so the package market grew again. Rothesay and many UK resorts realised they did not have the weather etc so sell themselves as short breaks, old people resorts, retirement areas etc as the market requests. So Cyprus will have to develope to meet the market expectations and whether that is in a planned organised fashion or as individual efforts to keep market share only Cyprus knows. However we can blow the trumpet in a much more positive way than we often do!!!!

Lets be honest the caravan park in oor village put tarmac on some of the roads to keep the customers tootsies dry.

We had friends over in the summer and they loved Cyprus.

They thought it expensive but like Discopants said " they bring there money and want to do what they like with it.

They did'nt like the fact that the Restauraunts had no Cypriots serving, Only Eastern Europeans who they thought did'nt have the same charm of the Cypriots.

That was the first week.

The second week we took them to local Tavernas and stuff you may not see as a tourist and they loved it.

They have already booked to come this year.

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Did you think i would leave you dying.
When there's room on my horse for two.

Charm is a two way street. I have seen a few people criticise restaurants in the tourist areas for having Eastern European staff, but these people work very long hours - sometimes from mid morning until late at night for little money and then have to put up with abuse from some customers and the Cypriot owners who frequently pocket the tips for themselves. In winter they have to stand outside, often in freezing weather, for hours on end. Is it any wonder that some of them seem a tad unhappy? But have you ever tried to break the ice and chat with them? They are often well educated and speak good English.

Employing foreign workers to keep down prices is not peculiar to Cyprus. A while back I stayed in London (at the Hilton in Kensington at well over £200 a night for the room). There was no English member of staff on duty during the evening and the receptionist's command of English was so bad that he had to contact an off duty English manager (by telephone) in order to allow him to answer my simple query.

And when you complain that Cyprus is expensive, with what are you comparing it? Certainly flight prices are higher than to many destinations, but are you otherwise comparing like with like? You would spend far more in (say) Majorca or Italy for similar accommodation, with 5 star hotels here costing typically a third to half of what you would pay there for similar accommodation.

KG, I think what Russ is saying is, his guests found a complete difference between the tourist area & the outer villages

Down in the tourist area, the restaurants are quite expensive compared to the village taverna's

The staff as you say have been running around all summer, so by this time of year are completely knackered & not in the mood to chat away or even smile sometimes, where the Taverna staff are willing to chat & constantly enjoy having company

I think its easy to say the difference is, the staff in the tourist area work to earn a pityful living but the staff in the village taverna usually own the establishment & its their life so they don't know any difference

Unfortunately you can't have your cake and your ha'penny. The constant moan is that Cyprus is getting expensive - even if that were true, then we only have ourselves to blame. How many times have you heard some idiot say to the Cypriot salesperson or restaurateur 'that would have cost x times more in the UK' Cypriots are not stupid. If they think you are happy to pay more that's what will happen.

The only way to keep it cheap is to keep the people poor, or they will employ someone poorer. It is simply unsustainable, so the British holidaymaker, who can't really afford to come here anyway, without borrowing someone else's money to do so, complains that it is too expensive and goes to some other place where the people are even poorer.

It's the same with the ex-pat contingent. We come here for the low taxation and the relatively lower cost of living and complain about the lack of services that the state provides in the UK. We come here in droves to live, then complain about the building necessary to accommodate us. We can't have it both ways.

To misquote Oscar Wilde - too many Brits know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The Eastern European staff they came across were very polite and professional and they had no problems with them whatsoever.

They just enjoyed the second week more because i showed them what Cyprus is all about.

Much cheaper in the Village's too.

They must have liked it if they have booked again,

And no KG niether i or my guests were having a moan, they were just stating what they found as holiday makers

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Did you think i would leave you dying.
When there's room on my horse for two.

The Eastern European staff are often friendly and can be chatty. The problem is that they can't really chat about Cyprus, and Cyprus issues, which is what I enjoy when I go on holiday. It does come as a bit of a surprise to find that you are not being served by Cypriots, and it feels more authentic when you are.

There is nothing wrong with what KG is saying - it is all true. But if you are coming here on holiday for the first time you don't actually think that deeply, do you?

I don't have much to gripe about as far as living here is concerned. As a tourist I thought Pafos was dirty, unfinished and litter-strewn and was glad that we weren't staying in Kato Pafos. We went off in the car most days, and spent most of our time around Polis and Latsi, and that is what drew us to living in Cyprus. If we had come to Pafos for our first holiday on the Island I doubt whether we would have returned. Thankfully we saw past the resort.

Verity.

_________________
Verity.

Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

http://coecyp.blogspot.com