Philokypros Roussounides: The crisis in the Middle East does not appear to have affected Cyprus' tourism industry

Occupancy at tourist accommodations in Cyprus is moving at a fairly high level during this period, with the escalation of the crisis in the Middle East not appearing to have affected the Cypriot tourism industry beyond some isolated cases of cancellations according to the Director General of the Cyprus Hotels Association, Philokypros Roussounides.

He noted that tourism industry stakeholders are on the alert, anxiously keeping an eye on geopolitical developments.

In his statements to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), Philokypros Roussounides said that the occupancy at the moment is at a fairly high level, "it is over 80% and in some cases over 90%". It is, as he noted, "a reflection of last year and it seems that, for now at least, the tourism has not been affected by geopolitical developments, despite any individual cancellations that have been observed".

He said, however, that as long as this situation continues, "it is certainly not favorable in terms of last-minute bookings but also in terms of vacations in general."

"At the moment we are at quite satisfactory levels despite the fact that 'one-to-one' overnight stays do not reflect the good tourist inflow that Cyprus has from abroad, which is moving at the levels of last year," he said, explaining that this is due to that "there is more leakage of tourists to occupied areas but also to licensed and unlicensed short-term rental accommodation (such as airbnb)."

Roussounides also explained that due to the economic recession in various countries, some of which are main markets for Cyprus, such as Britain, the length of overnight stays has decreased, a phenomenon that contributes to observing a difference in terms of absolute number of tourist inflows in relation to the absolute number of overnight stays.

He reiterated that, despite all this, the tourism industry of Cyprus is resilient, as, as Roussounides emphasised, "when in the midst of all these challenges we succeed and are at the same levels as last year, this in itself demonstrates both the resilience and the sustainability of our tourism industry."

“Beyond that we are on alert, watching the developments anxiously as any further escalation of the situation will certainly affect the industry to some extent. This naturally creates an uncertainty which certainly does not favor last-minute bookings whose contribution to the achievement of this year's goals - as close as possible to last year's levels - is very helpful," noted the Director General and reiterated that with the current data and figures "we are close to last year's levels."

(Source: CNA)