By Jean Christou
PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos, deputies and tourism bosses were yesterday treated to a slideshow of cringe-worthy scenes that put tourists off coming to Cyprus.
The presentation by a representative of the environmental group Green Shield was part of the event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Association of Cyprus Tourist Enterprises (STEK).
Embarrassing photos included neglected archaeological sites overgrown with weeds, graffiti in historical parts of the main towns, rubbish-strewn countryside, abandoned cars, ugly signs, careless spelling such as ‘sandwitch’ and ‘sunbets’, pavement parking and misleading advertising such as offering ‘sea views’ when the view is on the side window of the hotel.
STEK, whose members are for the most part luxury hotel owners, have long bemoaned the state of the environment outside their establishments and complain that local authorities are not doing enough to change it.
“Environment and Tourism are interrelated,” said STEK chairman Akis Vavlitis. “The natural environment is the raw material for every tourist destination and any growth or action in the tourism sector should be a balance between the natural, cultural, structured and also the economic environment. That we fall short on this is a daily realisation.”
Vavlitis said the photo collection had already been sent to local authorities to try and prod them into action.
“It is well known that a picture paints a thousands words but nothing will reverse the words that will be spoken by dissatisfied tourists,” he added.
“Don’t forget, it is always costlier to maintain a customer than to gain a new one.”
Speaking of the dire state of tourism, Vavlitis said that despite the industry still constituting a significant part of the economy, this was not reflected in state policy towards the sector.
An even though tourism only rose 0.6 per cent in 2007 while global tourism rose 6.0 per cent, Cyprus was still classed 26th out of 176 counties where tourism made an important contribution to GDP.
Tourism used to contribute over 20 per cent of GDP, but in the last five years this has dropped to some 13 per cent, having been overtaken by the real estate market.
Vavlitis said that since 2001 tourism to Cyprus had dropped 10.4 per cent.
He said the global rise of 6.0 per cent was remarkable considering the external factors that have plagued the industry since 9/11, such as increased fuel prices, terrorism, health and safety issues and inflation.
Yet Cyprus seemed unable to weather these storms in the same way, he said.
“This proves that it is not so much external factors that influence tourism demands but the internal weaknesses of the destination,” Vavlitis said.
“So we should stop blaming foreigners for the pathogenic regression of Cypriot tourism because the responsibility lies with all of us, the government and the private sector.”
Vavlitis said STEK had handed over a list of 38 proposals to all three presidential candidates. He said Papadopoulos had agreed with them and that the other two candidates AKEL’s Demetris Christofias and DISY’s Ioannis Kasoulides told him if they were elected they would implement 90 per cent of them.
“It is time to come out from our shell and begin to follow the example of modernity achieved by our competitors,” said Vavlitis.
“Unlike Cyprus, they have moved with the speed of light to strengthen their tourist infrastructure.”
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008
That and the program I saw this evening, "Wish you were here. Then and Now", in which the only flag that was shown was that of Greece...Not a sign of the "Cyprus" flag anywhere.......
