Wanting to be more specific on the issue of the quality of tourism in Ayia Napa, Mr. Karousos presented statistics of the CTO, according to which out of 533.000 tourists in the municipality in 2014, 56.000 lived in organized apartments of B and C category. , ie cheap accommodation, which are chosen by tourists who sometimes cause problems.
Therefore, Mr. Karousos stressed, it is wrong for domestic and foreign media from time to time to try to create a leveling image for all tourists in Ayia Napa, due to the cheap tourism visitors, which amount to 10%. He added that in order to attract tourists to Ayia Napa, large organizations and entrepreneurs work hard abroad and at home, spending millions of euros. Alas if, on the occasion of the problems caused by a portion of tourists, the arduous effort made by all these people is deleted.
In addition, the mayor of Ayia Napa continued, from the official statistics on the course of tourism in Ayia Napa over the last decade, it appears that there has been a rapid increase of 40%. This could not be achieved if the high level tourists were not satisfied. Specifically, in 2004, about 384.000 tourists arrived in Ayia Napa, while in 2014 the number of tourists reached 533.000. "This is an impressive performance of a decade and if Ayia Napa continues at this pace, then it will surpass the entire province of Paphos, which in 2014 recorded 761.000 tourist arrivals," Mr. Karousos underlined.
Elsewhere in his remarks on the quality of tourism in Ayia Napa, Mr. Karousos referred to the renovation of many hotels and tourist accommodation in Ayia Napa in recent years and especially in the last three years. He also pointed out that it would not make sense to make so many and so large investments for renovation in hotels, if the area did not attract high quality tourism.
Not only that, he added, but for the last 2-3 years we have been seeing tourism entrepreneurs in the area taking risks and investing large sums in converting specialized hotels into well-known boutique hotels for quality tourists. "I do not object," said Mr. Karousos, "that we also have this 10% of tourism that somehow affects the remaining 90%, but we take measures and try in various ways to control it. The Police patrols day and night, while we as a municipality take various measures. For example, this year we managed to reduce the beach parties to 8 of the 23 organized by a specific party organizer last year ".
Source: Liberal