Every year, for the last 3-4 years, around 50 thousand tourists who end up in Ayia Napa do not stay in hotels or tourist accommodation. But they choose to stay in luxury villas, houses with swimming pools, or even apartment buildings that are not only not in tourist areas, but purely in residential areas and officially, have Cypriots or foreigners who use them for private housing.
For Ayia Napa, the percentage of this category of tourists, according to the mayor Giannis Karousos, concerns annually in recent years, a percentage of 7% to 11% of the total arrivals. And according to some indicative statistics of the CTO, all over Cyprus this category of tourists amounts to around 10% annually and is distributed in all the provinces of the island.
Investigating the matter, and based on some reports from Ayia Napa residents, the owners of these houses, villas or apartments rent them out with coarse rents, winter - summer. Cypriots move to other or their parents' homes while foreigners, residents of Ayia Napa, move for a few months to their countries of origin (mainly British nationals who rent them for a few months to their compatriots, moving themselves to England during this time).
On the occasion of a complaint from the citizens of Ayia Napa that a luxury villa in their neighborhood was rented by foreigners who used it (inside, but also in the yard and the surrounding streets) for the shooting of a film of erotic content, we contacted Mayor Giannis Karousos for clarification.
Providing us with the above data, regarding the number of tourists who usually "book" online but also through travel agents or offices of this type of accommodation in Cyprus for their holidays, Mr. Karousos stated that he is aware of this situation. , for some years. Adding that it started timidly three years ago, maybe five years ago, but it is a fact that for 1-2 years now the search for accommodation for holidays in residential areas has been growing rapidly, resulting in some problems (As in the case of erotic filming annoyed locals).
More in a while…
Source: Philenews