I’ve just spent a quick weekend in Cyprus, reviewing our pre-season renovation programme for our villas.
It’s interesting times for the island as the stock market, the best performer in the world in 1999, has lost 30% of its value since early December. This was to be expected, of course, as the Cypriots thought their stock market was a replacement for a gambling casino. One must assume that the Cypriot investor will now take a cold, hard look as to what the companies they have been avidly investing in will make in the way of profits.
What interested me more was the fact that the Council of Ministers this week approved a proposal by the Commerce, Industry and Tourism Ministry for the construction of hotel complexes on the island in a bid to increase tourist arrivals.
“The hotels will have a capacity of more than 600 beds and the facilities offered will meet the demand of different markets,” the Cyprus Weekly reports.
The newspaper goes on to say: “The Cabinet’s approval means that restrictions on the number of beds allowed per hotel have now been lifted in line with other major tourist destinations worldwide. Such complexes are successful in other countries and are more viable and competitive”, Commerce Industry and Tourism Minister, Nicos Rolandis told the Cyprus Weekly.
Well, I thought that Cyprus was aiming for the upmarket tourist, or so we have been led to believe for many years now. The fact is you cannot increase your bed capacity and at the same time hope to remain exclusive. High yields come from tight control over capacity, not by opening the gates to low-priced tourism.
Mr. Rolandis is pursuing a high risk policy which may well backfire. There is no doubt that the reason for the current popularity of Cyprus is the strength of sterling against the Cyprus pound and the fact that Spain and particularly Majorca are becoming increasingly expensive for the mass-market package tourist. For the first time for many years Cypriot hoteliers are making money. This is the time to keep a firm hold on bed supply in order to maintain yields and is not the time to allow an increase in the availability of hotel rooms. The image of the island will already have taken a knocking following the showing of Ayia Napa: Fantasy Island on Channel 4, an unrepresentative view of what Cyprus is really like.
To think that such soft porn rubbish, designed to titillate those who watch, may come to represent Cyprus in the minds of viewers is criminal. There is no doubt that part of Ayia Napa is a ghetto but it has nothing to do with the rest of the island and the reputation of the excellent hotels in that area should not be tarnished by such garbage.
This is the time for Cyprus to consolidate, to allow demand to match supply, to allow higher yields from tourism to be translated into an improved, high quality infrastructure. Twenty seven years in tourism have taught me a great deal. I have seen destinations destroyed, reputations ruined. When I see my homeland going the same way I am filled with anguish and frustration. Sunvil and other companies are proud to feature the very best of what Cyprus has to offer. I hope we can prevail in this sea of irresponsibility and cheap thrills aimed at the basest of human emotion.