Philokypros Roussounides: Hotel occupancy at 50% over Easter

The hotel occupancy rate is expected to reach around 50% over the Easter holiday, with the majority opting to stay in the coastal as well as mountain areas.

Philokypros Roussounides, general manager of the Cyprus Hotel Association (PASYXE), told InBusinessNews that hoteliers are bracing for yet another difficult year, already counting losses brought on by the unrest in the region.

And then on the local front, Cypriots are increasingly turning their backs on the local hotels in favour of holidays abroad.

As a result, hotel occupancy over the Easter holiday and even the whole of May is not expected to surpass 50%.

Cypriots booking two or three night stays for Easter

According to Roussounides, there will be plenty of Cypriots travelling abroad this Easter. However, some have booked two to three night stays at local hotels. “Thanks to the good weather, the overnight stays will be in hotels in both the coastal areas as well as the mountains,” he explained.

“Over the two, three day Easter holiday, the occupancy rate is expected to be around 50%,” said Roussounides, adding: “The average occupancy rate for the month is just below that.”

Things not looking that great for summer bookings

Things are not looking that great when it comes to summer bookings either, he said, with the hotel industry making a huge effort to improve the situation as the new season begins.

The situation is made harder because of the geopolitical unrest right now, as well as the recession in the UK and the energy and financial crisis in Central Europe.

And there are other factors that could come into play, said Roussounides: “For example, we can’t know from now how we will be affected by the European Football Championship, as well as the Olympic Games. All this is making our effort even harder.”

“The hotel industry will be tested”

With the above in mind, said Roussounides, “this will be another year that the hotel industry will be tested; but we hope that it will once again prove its resilience”.

He concluded: “As we have mentioned plenty of times before, our primary objective for this year is to reach last year’s levels as much as possible; though looking at the picture right now, it looks like we will fall behind last year’s performance.”