The flow of tourist reservations has improved, but for now it is not so large and such that it can cover the gap created by cancellations and the period we lost, which is the two-month period, March-April, PASYXE General Director Christos Angelides told CNA, who pointed out the need for an "aggressive strategy in the markets with a combination of weapons" (online, hosting travel agents, journalists, influencers).
"We must do everything at an excellent level for a very long time in order to remove the veil of uncertainty that has fallen on Cyprus due to known events or due to our proximity to what is happening in the Middle East," he emphasized.
There is no need to panic, he said. "We are the industry of joy, life and optimism and we must not forget that."
Mr. Angelidis said that it will be a year full of challenges, which "we must face calmly without damaging either our reputation or the proper operation of our hotels."
He mentioned that March and April have unfortunately been lost and added that "May is considerably further behind what we expected and what last year's data was."
"The days are passing and it seems, unfortunately, that we will not have the results of May, which we were all planning, either as individuals or as a country," he said and added that "now, we must look at the rest of the season because it must not be lost either."
The General Director of PASYXE said that the information the Association receives "from our daily phone calls but also from the research we conduct demonstrates a weakness in the flow of reservations."
"The flow has improved, but for now it is not enough to cover the gap created by cancellations and the period we lost, which was the summer booking period, that is, April," he added.
"Inevitably, we are now entering the period when we will compete in so-called last-minute bookings," he noted.
He also mentioned that "we have to compete with giants," such as Spain, which has millions of beds, Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, which are cheaper destinations and have lower costs than us.
He also said that the time they have to fly to airports in Spain, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, such as Mallorca and others, is much shorter and therefore the tickets are much cheaper and at the same time the routes can be made by one plane two to three times a day.
He noted that each plane can only fly to Cyprus once a day, either from Sweden or Poland, or from airports in the United Kingdom.
Occupancy between 40%-60%, need for campaign until 2027
Mr. Angelidis told CNA that for the summer, occupancy this year is between 40% and 60%, while in previous years it was much higher and amounted to 80% to 85%.
"What concerns us is the flow of reservations, which is around 5-6 times lower," he added.
The Secretary General of PASYXE stressed the need for the country to promote more and for there to be more cooperation with airlines.
He added that there should be "major joint campaigns with tour operators, from now until the summer of 2027."
He noted that agents and airlines' planning has begun for 2027 and "we must give them the motivation and sense of security, as partners."
Asked how hoteliers will deal with seasonal workers, Mr. Angelidis said that this is an issue that is of great concern to PASYXE, "because seasonal workers are part of the backbone of a hotel," as he said.
"They are our own people, many of whom we have been bringing back for many years, and they are our trained seasonal workers," he added.
He also mentioned that everyone is trying to strike a balance and invite more seasonal workers rather than hiring foreign staff, but very often our seasonal workers do not have the same qualifications as the low-skilled staff (cleaners).
"Slowly we will bring them all in, or at least most of them," he concluded.
Source: KYPE
