A summer that reminded of 2019!
Squares and beaches in Ayia Napa and Protaras were packed with people, as were hotels, with occupancy exceeding 80% in July and August.
Mr. Lakis Avramidis, Director of the Famagusta Tourism Development and Promotion Company (ETAP), spoke to FamagustaNews about the dynamics of this summer, about the markets that "replaced" the Russian market, about the tourism of September and also about the tourism of the occupied areas of Cyprus.
Andris Florentzou's response to Sigma's "Mesimeri ka Kati" show, with Mr. Lakis Avramidis as a guest
It was a big breath for many tourism businesses, July and August in which they saw their turnover increase, after two disastrous years due to the pandemic.
According to Mr. Lakis Avraamidis, "The good thing is that after a numbness in June, July - August went very well and everyone was happy. The momentum gained by the province helped us expect a much better September. We may be optimistic about September even though its beginning seems numb, but the market moves slowly, and we cannot predict. There are last minute bookings and people are scared because of the cancellations that have been happening lately.
We think because we've done a very big advertising campaign overseas, in important markets we think that momentum will continue."
Asked to answer which market has the first place in Famagusta, Mr. Avraamidis said that "our first market has always been the British one, and this year as well. The campaign we did was about markets that were well-known but needed a push so that they move more dynamically towards Cyprus and these are France - the rise of the French in Cyprus is impressive - Poland, the Czech Republic, Scandinavia - traditional -, Slovakia, central Europe.
The arrival of Cypriots was very large this year, to the point where we could say that the Province of Famagusta is the No. 1 destination for their summer. Too many Cypriots chose our region for holidays this year. This helped the restaurants and similar businesses a lot, which worked very well after two years."
The comment of Mr. Avraamidis is of interest as far as the popularity of the occupied territories as a tourist destination is concerned.
"Let's say that all of Cyprus loses from the arrival of tourists in the occupied territories. The market that goes the most to the occupied territories is Israel. The bad thing now is that Russians started to go as well. Turkey was already a popular destination for the Russians and now with the sanctions against them they are "finding a way out" in the occupied territories. It's something our government needs to look at carefully."
The lack of staff was a big problem for all businesses which seems to have been solved… internally. According to the statements of Mr. Lakis Avraamidis, the companies did not manage to find the appropriate number of staff nor the staff properly trained to fill the vacant positions. This has the result of creating internal problems in businesses with the risk of worsening in the coming years, bringing unpleasant results.
FamagustaNews / Andri Florentzou