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.

Cyprus Space Tourism: Cyprus as a tourist attraction also for Space Tourists of the present and the future

Nasa astronaut Soichi Noguchi and his colleagues are giving us for the last months wonderful images of the Earth. Today he was generous with Cyprus. He took a picture of our island and published it on his twitter. http://twitter.com/Astro_Soichi

This post is to thank @Astro_Soichi for his courtesy and invite him to join us in Cyprus this Summer 2010  when he lands back to Earth.

Cyprus Tourism pampering local business, 132 Cyprus Hotels offer special rates for locals

For the past few years the local market gained more weight for the Cypriot hotel occupancies. Cypriots travel abroad a lot but also stay in Cyprus a lot. According to Cyprus tourism Organisation the local market produces approximately 1,500,000 (one and a half million) bed nights to the Cypriot hotels and accommodation establishments. This converts Cypriots to the 2nd biggest tourism market for Cyprus after the UK market.

It was once when Cypriots were an insignificant market share, those times are gone, today, the 1.5 million overnights, means a lot to the local hotel industry and especially this year the Cyprus Hotel Association gave a bigger emphasis to the packages offered from its members to the local consumer.

This initiative is supported by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, the Bank of Cyprus (American Express Credit Cards).

The offer includes 132 hotels in all the tourist areas of Cyprus and you can see the entire offer here below.

Open publication - Free publishing - More cyprus hotels

How could Cyprus Hotels could take advantage of OTAs ( Online Travel Agents)

Viewing today the video on VTV Channel with the interview of Dr. Chris Anderson from Cornell University , I have realised that many of the indications he mentions could be applied to Cyprus as well.

Of course we need to have in mind that the so called dot com brands in Cyprus do not really exist. Cyprus tourism industry is formed mainly by independent hotels that do not belong to international chains. Now this happens it will be our subject for an other post on this blog.

Coming back to Dr. Anderson’s recommendations. Cyprus tourism has been traditionally depending on Travel Agents and Tour Operators. The online revolution is still making its way to Cyprus mainly because of the denial of the Cypriot tourism professional to change his/her marketing habits. In this path of unchanged change the recommendations of Dr. Anderson could fit and be more understandable for the average Cypriot hotelier.

The problem here is that the local travel agent, incoming agent is still wondering what to do online, he is still using old booking engines with no flexibility and without any benefit to the end user. We will not talk about the complete absence of any type of Social Media strategy. So first of all the local incoming agents need to understand how web and especially web 2.0 works and how an offline Travel Agent can become a successful online agent. Here is essential the participation of all the actors like Tour guides, theme park owners, excursion makers and yes the strong support from the local tourist authorities who can bring in tangible travel content.

Anyway pay attention to the video and make your own conclusions and if you are a Cypriot travel agent or a Cypriot hotelier I am sure you will find things here that are applicable to your daily work. In Cyprus we have at this moment a huge gap that is filled by the big players from the UK. So think and act.

Travel Freely !!! Greek and Cyprus tourism at your reach.

Whatever TV station you have on, whatever radio station you listen, whatever digital or paper newspaper you read, the news are the same. “Greece is in deep financial problems and this is due to the Greeks, the Greek way of thinking, the Greeks lied to the EU and so on and so forth”.

I am sorry Ladies and Gentlemen, but not all the Greeks are the same. Once, with a friend from Turkey at the World Travel Market in London some years ago, we were talking about how similar are Greeks and Turks. Similar when it comes to culture, food, family links etc. Ahmed though, mentioned an important difference that stayed in my memory. “The difference between Greeks and Turks is that we, Turks are have 2,000 very intelligent people who govern our country but you Greeks have 2000 idiots who govern your country despite that the percentage of university graduates is much higher in Greece than in Turkey and this should be a sign of a more educated and cultivated civic society, but still you elect incapable people to run your country” .

Well my friend Ahmed you were very right, those 2000 idiots are now the ones mainly responsible for the bankruptcy of Greece. For those idiots we cannot blame the rest of the people in Greece. Greeks now understood that the only way to save their country and consequently save the Euro and the Euro-zone is by being more productive. Despite that I am not a Greek citizen, but a Cypriot, I must admit that this comment of my good friend Ahmed made me see the Cypriot political reality from a more pragmatic point of view and since I decided not to vote anyone in any elections.
Greece and Cyprus are two connected economies and even more connected societies, and what happens today in Greece may never happen in Cyprus but it is shaking our economy here as well, and the shake is high on the Richter scale.

Greece and Cyprus have an extraordinary natural resource; Tourism. Greece and Cyprus are maybe not unique when it comes to mass tourism and travel, but defiantly both countries have many things to enjoy, discover and feel. Greek and Cypriot people are very hospitable and the Tourism Professionals in both countries have a great experience in taking care of their customers. The financial tsunami that is today swiping the Greek Economy but mostly the Greek society should stop immediately in order not to swipe the Cypriot economy and society and probably put in great danger the social and financial stability of many Europeans outside the borders of Greece and Cyprus.

In my opinion, the only feasible and “non-violent” way to stop this tsunami is if the Greek and Cypriot people have genuine and honest support from the rest of Europeans, especially from the inhabitants of countries with great recovery capacity such as Germany, UK, Holland etc.
Therefore I would kindly ask you all who read this article to consider Greece and Cyprus as your next vacation destination. I would even suggest you to combine the two places. Live your Myth in Greece and Feel Cyprus this Summer, like this you are contributing to the European Economy and European Social Stability.

Last but not least, I promise to all my fellow European citizens that I will do my best to keep the idiots out of power. By the way I would like to clarify that the word idiot is used in this article in the context the Athenians used to use it during the golden era of Athenian Democracy (http://budurl.com/GreekIdiots)

Not paralyzed by the Icelandic volcano

Visit Cyprus this summer will be the choice of many Europeans. Amongst them the Spanish or other nationalities that leave in Spain. The campaigns in the Spanish football pitches and especially at those games that will define the Spanish Liga have managed to create awareness about the Cyprus.

If you live in Spain and you would like to discover the other end of the Mediterranean it is highly recommendable to use as a stopover, Athens,  the Greek capital since the alternative of Turkish airlines does not take you to the free part of the island. If you travel from Spain to Cyprus make sure you land in Larnaca (LCA) or Paphos (PFO) airports, witch are the two legal airports of the country and be sure the route is not paralyzed by the Icelandic volcano.

Visit Cyprus this summer - Make your first Tackle to Mass Tourism from cyprustourism on Vimeo.