The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism through the Cyprus Tourism Organization spends millions of Euros on “bonus plans” to the Tour Operators from almost all over the world (at least all the markets they consider primary) who manage to land tourist in Larnaca(LCA) and Paphos(PFO) Airports. This policy is widely accepted in the Tourism Sector since the bonus is given to the Tour Operators either according to the number of passengers landed or as advertisement fees for the advertising campaigns the Tour Operators make in the country of origin.
The list of the Tour Operators is huge and is of public domain. What is not public is the amount of bonus each Tour Operator received and the agreement signed between the 2 parts. Nevertheless, studying the list we will see companies from the UK, USA, Germany, France, Italy, East Europe, Arab Countries and many others.
Lately we had some rumors that an Italian Tour Operator that had a bonus agreement with the Republic of Cyprus and also had contracts with hotels in “North Cyprus”. This provoked the reaction of the Minister and the Tourism Professionals in the Republic and the Minister promised to investigate the mater in depth.
The fact that tourists land to Larnaca and then taxis, private cars or other means of transport drive them to the hotels in “North Cyprus” is neither a secret nor a lie. It can be for sure verified very easily just by visiting the arrivals hall of Larnaca airport and see taxi drivers holding signs with names of hotels located in the “other Cyprus”. Hotels like “Acapulco Hotel “ Kyrenia”, “Manolia Hotel in Lapythos”, “Dome Hotel - Kyrenia” and many others including many casinos.
The big tour operators that land to Larnaca and Paphos such as Thomas Cook and Thomson “ Tui do not only offer Tourist Packages with flight, hotel and transfers but they also offer flight-only options to their customers. They do than not only in Cyprus but all over the world and there is nothing wrong with that, on the contrary they cater for the FIT market (Free Independent Travelers) who definitely have a different spending power and interests. Now, in Cyprus since the road blocks to the “North” are still open there is no way to control who and why visits the “North”. What happens the last years is that tourists who the Greek Cypriots taxpayers have paid them to come to Cyprus, land in Laranca and then spend their holidays in hotels that were built on Greek Cypriot occupied land. The internet and especially travel forums and the Social Media sphere are full with comments like "We had a wonderful time in North Cyprus, we flew to Larnaca with Thomsonfly..."
This shows us that our Government in an indirect but “effective” manner is taking the “North out of the economic isolation”. We, the Greek Cypriot taxpayers even now in times of Crisis and when tourist overnights are down by at least 20%, still support the model of prizing operators and airlines. It is not possible to control who is crossing the Green Line since the road blocks remain open. We cannot prohibit to EU citizens to go on holidays on European land but we can stop paying for that.
At last we have to stop pumping tax money into the bank accounts of the big guys and look into a serious change of tourism policy, we should finally make this policy very personal. We need to look at tourism as a face to face relationship with each and every visitor to Cyprus. I would suggest new bonus plans that have direct effect to all the visitors, we need to encourage independent travelers to come to our country and stay here with us. Bonus plans that promote our hospitality and do not give in to the “warnings" of the “feudal lords of tourism”. For more information I remind you the speech of a director of Thomson - Tui during the Hoteliers Association Conference in Nicosia the 12th of February 2009 when in front of the minister of Public Works and the Minister of Tourism said, “help us to help you” when in a direct manner asked us for more money. He and his team were pushing for a 20% discount on the contracted rates for 2009 something that they achieved. During lunch break he also achieved a 5% retroactive discount on the pending invoices in order to “decrease corporate losses”. Nevertheless the biggest achievement for companies like Tui was to assure that the Cypriot taxpayers keep paying them to bring visitors to the legal airports of the country and then let them free to visit “the uncovered north where time seems stopped, the authentic Cyprus, North Cyprus”
Dear Mr. Paschalides in tourism we need measures without collateral damages, we need measures that assure future to the only industry left which you can be minister of, we need to control those measures and make sure they really bring a benefit. We want those measures to be under the control of those who pay them.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for you comments, they are very valuable to us.