Tourism in Cyprus is a beach pleasure

Cyprus is the safest place to swim in Europe. According to the European Commission, the Cypriot seawater is has the best water quality among the 27 member states. The report edited by the European Environment Agency evaluates Cyprus with 100%.

Despite that the water quality in Europe has fallen a bit from 2009 to 2010, Cyprus scores first.

So if you are a sea lover you have just found your sea paradise. Cyprus beach holidays may sound boring or “normal holidays” but if you search a bit you will be able to discover hidden corners that tourists did not reach yet. In the area of Pafos you could take a bath almost alone in Akamas area, or Pyrgos Tylirias, or even a closer costs like the ones near the birth place of Aphrodite.

You can even join us for a coffee at the Paphos municipal baths where we swim 365 days a year and at this time of the year we take our bath at 6 am. In order to get a great start up of the day.

Cyprus Airways president resigns - Kikis Lazarides leaves Cyprus Airways

The President of the board of directors of Cyprus Airways, Kikis Lazarides,  presented his resignation to the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Demetris Christofias. Mr Lazarides was assigned to this position by the recently deceased last president Tasos Papadopoulos back in 2004.

Everything seems to point that Lazarides has found hard core reactions in both inside and outside the company,  while he wanted to put order in the turbulent economics and politics of the state owned airline.
The scandal of Eurocypria, the ex sister airline of Cyprus airways, that broke a few weeks ago, when suddenly the Cypriot citizen has realized that politicians of many political colours,  have cheated the parliament  to release 35 million Euros to save Eurocyopria last winter  from guaranteed bankruptcy , is only the tip of the iceberg. The General Accountant of the Republic of Cyprus in his report about Cyprus air transport points very clearly the it is unviable and unsustainable  to have 2 state owned airlines in Cyprus and therefore an immediate merge of the two airlines was the first step to survival.

Lazarides, former Banker , president of Laiki Polular Bank, now Marfin Laiki Bank, has found himself in the centre of the hurricane and today he decided to resign. He leaves behind him an uncertain future for the Airline that lacks of flexibility and has very little character of a modern company.  Cyprus Airlines is used to monopolistic routes and has very little view of how the world of air transport has changed the last years. Closed in the walls themselves have built, the airline suffers from the CCSS (Cypriot Civil Servant Syndrome). A virus that lately has been without any vaccination in Cyprus.

The state is the sole owner of both airlines in Cyprus, this creates the perfect scenery for corruption and private political agendas to flourish.  This year is a very tough year for the fragile Cypriot Tourism industry, crisis of this type should be avoided or given a quick and very effective solution. Maybe is time for the Cypriot politicians and micro-politicians to stay out of the management of vital sectors such as air transport.
Cyprus is a profitable destination especially if someone looks the geographic location of the island, with two new airports (run privately)  that are a jewel of out tourism crown, a new generation airline should be born from this.

Lazarides left by himself, what are the others going to do? Would they give up too? My guess is that there is more than one who likes Lazarides chair, people who like political positions but they know they will never be elected not even for the Backgammon club of their village.

My opinion that there is not enough meat for all the vultures on this corpse, but vultures at the end fight amongst themselves for the last piece of skin.

Subsidise tourism in the European Union for the benefit of the small and medium tourist enterprise instead of the big tour operators and whole sellers

The crisis is not anymore a ghost, it is a reality especially for the small and medium tourist entrepreneur, Cyprus is defiantly not the exemption, despite that the minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism Mr. Antonis Paschalides was assuring the Hoteliers and Travel industry that we would only have a 10% decrease the reality is completely different. The best numbers talk about a 20% decrease in occupancies and the worst numbers talk about 30%.

What that is all mean? It mainly means that the big tour operators are not fulfilling their compromise with the industry. The tour operators that last winter were asking for help and took from the industry subsidies of some million Euros are now not fulfilling their compromises. The crisis excuse is simply perfect, easy to pronounce and very easy to demonstrate that the crisis is responsible. Now , if someone digs a bit deeper you find out that things are not that easy, and let me bullet point my thoughts.

1. Big tour operators support the destinations in the Mediterranean that are outside the Euro zone since their currencies are not subject to euro ? dollar relationship and therefore are at least 35% cheaper in airport taxes and ground tourist services such as transfers and accommodation.

2. The money they use to push those destinations is the money they got from the bleeding destinations like Cyprus, who did not have other alternative than subsidizing arrivals. Conclusion, the rich European destinations subsidise through the private sector the development of tourism to their direct competitors.

3. The EU rules put barriers to direct subsidies but not in Turkey or Egypt. Over there things are done according to ?market rules?. Therefore the big guys have more manoeuvre space and can with not much trouble pull the strings to the suppliers for lower prices.

4. Low cost airlines are not interested in covering long hall flights from central and northern Europe . The costs are far too high and they cannot enter in the subsidy dance since most of them do not work with package deals. This keeps the Tour Operators alive in the aviation map since the destinations consider them indispensable for bringing in mass tourism even thought low cost airlines transport many more passengers than charter flights.

Suggestions:
1. Independent hoteliers and small hotel chains that do not have corporate liaisons with tour operators could create a new business model that would fit the Low Cost airline model and make a pressure group in the market place.
2. The state instead of subsidizing tour operators could use that money to reduce the airport taxes, increase online presence in an effective manner towards the direct user.
3. Incentivize the tour operators with indirect incentives such as tax reductions, VAT exemptions that have impact on their profit and loss account and not on their cash flow, like this they keep the pulse of sales but without using direct cash benefits.