The goal of the hoteliers of the free province of Famagusta is to have satisfactory reservations of tourists for the months of September and October, Doros Takkas, President of PASYXE Famagusta, told KYPE, who said he was satisfied with the traffic that existed in August.
He added that "after the first week of August, ie from the 7th of the month until the 22nd, we had the best part of the time in the fullness of hotels in the free province of Famagusta which reached up to 70%, leaving us satisfied. With our entry in September, there was a drop in hotel bookings, especially in the first days of the month and the occupancy rate is around 50% ".
He explained that "this reduction in bookings existed in the" good "years but not to the extent it is today. In particular, we observed this decrease in the last week of August, with the situation improving with the entry of September, however until today we have not seen anything like this happen ".
Answering a relevant question, Mr. Takkas said that "the decrease in the first days of September is not due to domestic tourism this year, since Cypriot visitors to the free area of Famagusta, completed their holidays in the last week of August. This is inexplicable both for the hoteliers and for the travel agents themselves, since as they inform us they have several vacancies in the flights they make from different countries in the first days of September ".
He added that "what is discouraging is the fact that we have not yet seen the British visiting Cyprus in large numbers and they are still very low in bookings. "On the other hand, Germany is in the red in terms of the epidemiological picture, while Cyprus is in the deep red, which prevents travel from some European countries."
According to Mr. Takkas, "the main market that remains is Russia, which was the only one that had good numbers in terms of hotel reservations in the free area of Famagusta. "The optimistic thing is that the Russian tour operators keep their flights throughout September without reducing them, which is probably the most positive development that exists at the moment."
In response to another question, he said: "Given that flights from Russia are maintained and given that we are cooperative in offering very attractive prices, we hope to have satisfactory fullness from this country throughout September, maybe even October so that we can stay open. . However, I believe that from the end of September - beginning of October we will see some hotels close ".
Regarding the program of the Ministry of Tourism for subsidized holidays for people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, the President of PASYXE Famagusta said that "this program will contribute and help some weekends. However, the week is not two days but seven and some hotels that do not cooperate with Russians may be forced to close. "
However, we must take into account, he continued "that we do not have a big horizon since we have at our disposal only about 7 - 10 days, everything happens at the last minute and we can not see too far. "Everyone is trying to stay open and the goal of the hoteliers of the free province of Famagusta is to exhaust the months of September and October and maybe a little from November".