The tourism industry is on standby for the start of the new tourist season, the President of the Pancyprian Hoteliers Association (PASYXE) of Famagusta, Doros Takkas, told KYPE.
He added that "unfortunately things are not very good regarding the new tourist season and we expect some developments in the coming days, which may help in the matter. In other words, we expect that flights from Russia will be allowed, and especially low-cost flights (charter flights), which do not exist at the moment, while we hope that the date given by the British government to its citizens to travel will not be postponed. abroad".
Answering a relevant question, Mr. Takkas said that "the recent decision of Great Britain to ban leisure travel to its citizens, makes things very difficult in Cyprus. "Worst of all, we do not know the date on which we can rely."
He added that May 15 was originally set as the start date for leisure travel by the British, however, it seems that this will not be observed. "We look forward to the new decisions by the British government, which are likely to be made on April 12, when a new date will be set, possibly the end of June, to allow flights from the UK to all destinations, including Cyprus," he said.
The President of PASYXE Famagusta also noted that "we knew from the beginning that the first six months of this year would be very difficult for the tourism industry, however, we hope that the situation will improve." The fact that today Cyprus is in the red in terms of the epidemiological picture, does not help at all in attracting tourism and this is something we see from various European countries, including Germany.
At the same time, he continued, "we see that from Israel, from which we expected to have a very good tourist traffic in April, it seems that things are moving very slowly. "Tourists from Israel will have to undergo a molecular test 72 hours before their departure from Cyprus to return to their country, which makes things very difficult."
He also noted that "because many of the developments are not in our hands", ie how the situation will develop in Great Britain, Russia and other European countries, we have to deal with our own epidemiological situation, which "She's not good at the moment."
Asked what the hoteliers of the free province of Famagusta will do based on the data that currently exist, Mr. Takkas replied that "the biggest problem faced by both hoteliers and their partners, ie travel agents, is when they will start the tourist year to carry out the necessary procedures. At the moment we are in a state of waiting and we hope that the field regarding the opening of the hotels will be clarified soon, not only in our province but also in the whole of Cyprus ".
Asked whether there is information on domestic tourism, so that hotels can host Cypriots until the arrival of foreign tourists, Mr. Takkas said that "from the information we have, this issue is not on the agenda of new relaxations to be discussed tomorrow at the Council of Ministers ".