The hoteliers of the free province of Famagusta declare themselves satisfied under the circumstances, since the occupancy rates in July reached 80%.
The President of PASYXE Famagusta, Doros Takkas, said that "July was the best month to date, with occupancy reaching approximately 80%. It is expected that the flow of tourists will continue at approximately the same numbers during the first three weeks of August. However, since most hotel bookings are now at the last minute, we cannot make predictions for the coming months, since everything is judged by the economic situation of the countries from which we receive tourism and in turn by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which continues".
He added that "under the circumstances the hoteliers are satisfied with the bookings and the tourist stream that exists to date. We have to take into account that we have lost about half of the tourism that came from the Russian and Ukrainian markets, there are still hotels that are closed" he said and added that "precisely because of the complete dependence on the two specific markets some have paid a higher price than others" .
According to Mr. Thakka "unfortunately the forecasts we have for the next few years are not the best, but since things change every day, we will have to wait and see what happens with all these developments that are constantly changing and then plan . What we should not do at this stage is to rush ahead and make calculations that may not materialize."
Answering a related question, he said that "with the situation prevailing in the world economy, especially in Europe, due to the war in Ukraine and other situations, it seems that 2023 will be a difficult year. The economic situation that exists especially in Britain, which is our main source of tourist flow, appears to affect Cyprus directly."
Referring to the plans of the tourist agents for 2023, Mr. Takkas said that "talking with them we see that there is a defense until the situation with the war in Ukraine and the global economy that is affected precisely because of the war is clarified."
Asked about reservations for the winter season in the free province of Famagusta, he expressed his assessment that "the winter will be very difficult. Taking into account that in the summer we have the results for tourism, I think that the winter will be very difficult for the region, while in case there is a tourist season it will be very short and with few visitors".