Cypriot and Bulgarian Ministers discuss tourism and energy

Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Antonis Paschalides met with Bulgarian Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traycho Traykov, with whom he discussed tourism and ways to enhance the exchange of tourists between the two countries.
Paschalides and Traykov reviewed bilateral relations, discussed various issues of mutual interest, and made special reference to possible cooperation to promote tourist packages, which will include the strong points of either country.
The Cypriot Minister briefed Traykov on developments in Cyprus concerning tourism, the promotion of major infrastructure projects, such as marinas and golf courses, and measures taken to strengthen domestic tourism.
Traykov referred to his positive impressions from the tourist infrastructure in Cyprus, and noted that Bulgaria could benefit from the exchange of expertise with Cyprus.
Regarding the sector of energy, the two Ministers discussed broader developments in Cyprus and Bulgaria, especially concerning aims set by the EU to produce energy from renewable sources.
Furthermore, Paschalides referred to the progress made in Cyprus in the sector of renewable energy sources, noting the commencement of works on the first two Aeolian parks, and also pointed out the significance of creating the energy centre in Vasiliko.
The Bulgarian Minister referred to the development of the production of hydroelectric energy in his country.

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Cyprus plays host to young shipping managers

BIMCO conference in Limassol

February 12, 2010 - www.financialmirror.com

Members of the young shipping community in Cyprus as well as guests from Greece, Germany and the United Kingdom, gathered in Limassol recently for the first BIMCO39 day held at the Columbia Plaza, hosted in collaboration with the Cyprus Shipping Chamber.
BIMCO39 is the Baltic International Maritime Council’s (BIMCO) platform for young shipping professionals under the age of 45 and aims to provide a platform for education and cultural exchange for its members. Joining the Minister of Communication and Works, Nicos Nicolaides, and the President of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber, Captain Eugen Adami, the 120 participants were eager to receive the latest information about contemporary shipping issues like Piracy and the Charter Markets.
In his address to the audience, Minister Nicolaides expressed his hopes of a turnaround for global shipping in 2010 and the importance of the up and coming generation of future leaders in Cyprus.
“Beyond the networking opportunities and educational presentations about Piracy, Challenges in Information Technology or Future Fuel Policies in Shipping, we also wanted to provide our attendees with an inspirational component. We were therefore delighted when Heinrich Schoeller, Andreas Droussiotis, Demetris Ioannides and Christos Mavrellis agreed to join us for a look back in time for Cyprus Shipping and to explain their respective roles in the early days of what has become the world’s largest centre for ship management. The turnout was very rewarding and underlined the commitment of Cyprus Shipping Companies to developing their young talents,” said BIMCO39 Ambassador in Cyprus, Timothy Scheller.
Beyond the yearly BIMCO39 day, the BIMCO39 network in Cyprus aims to serve as a community through which young shipping professionals may connect and foster joint efforts among the generation of future leaders.
According to the Director General of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber, Thomas Kazakos: ”BIMCO39 and the Cyprus Shipping Chamber wanted to express their commitment to continue a close relationship between member companies and our political and business leaders.”

 

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Measures to boost Tourism in Cyprus cause collateral damage
Monday, October 12, 2009

Lately we hear on the news that the measures the Cyprus government adopted to boost tourism will

continue for the year 2010.

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 rumours 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 Travellers) 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 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 travellers

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 an indirect 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 Cyprus 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.

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Revenue from Cyprus's vital tourism sector plummeted 16.7 percent in 2009, underscoring a bad year for the Mediterranean island's economy, official figures showed on Monday.

 

Income from tourism, which makes up 12 percent of gross domestic product, fell to an estimated 1.49 billion euros in January to December from 1.79 billion euros in 2008.

In December alone the slide was 17.3 percent - one of the steepest monthly drops of the year - with revenue from holidaymakers down to 42.7 million euros from 51.6 million in the same month of 2008.

Tourism receipts were in negative territory for 12 consecutive months.

Tourism income for 2008 as a whole fell 3.5 percent to 1.79 billion euros from 1.85 billion in 2007.

The average daily spend by tourists last December was 58.6 euros and the average stay was 11 days.

Israelis were the biggest spenders at 107.7 euros a day while Finns were the most frugal, spending just 42 euros a day on average.

The annual drop in revenue is linked to a 10.9 percent decrease in the number of tourist arrivals for 2009.

Bumper spending by holidaymakers helped the island achieve GDP growth of 4.4 percent in 2007, easing to 3.7 percent in 2008.

On the back of disappointing tourism income, the finance ministry is expecting 0.5 percent negative GDP growth for 2009 as the economy is still struggling to come out of recession.

The lion's share of visitors holidaying in Cyprus comes from fellow recession-hit EU countries, especially Britain, Greece and Germany.

Tourist numbers from Britain - the island's largest market - were down by 14 percent last year with the biggest drop from Russia at 17.8 percent.