THE EUROGROUP decision to impose a levy on Cypriot banks has caused a slew of concerns from tourist agents in Russia and the UK according to the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO).
A group of CTO representatives led by CTO chief Alecos Orountiotis and general-manager Marios Hannides left for Moscow yesterday where they will participate in Russia’s Tourism Exhibition due to begin today. They also hope to ease fears and assure Russians of the safety of Cyprus as a tourist destination.
“One of the goals of our representatives visiting Russia is to put Russian tour operators at ease with regards to the investment they have already made as many of them have invested millions of euros in Cyprus,” Hannides said. He explained that the investments came in the field of hotels, hotel restorations, advance payments and reservations.
“The current situation is causing an uncertain atmosphere because nobody knows exactly what will happen,” he said. Hannides revealed that the CTO had been bombarded with questions asking what would happen regarding the financial situation in Cyprus. “If there are cancellations then it will cause irreparable damage to our economy,” Hannides said.
“We have to give the message to Russian tourist agents and our partners that they can continue working in Cyprus without any trouble,” he added.
Orountiotis said that there had been no cancellations of either flights or hotel rooms from Russia or the UK.
“Everything is continuing as it was before and I am confident that tourism will not be affected by the financial goings-on in Cyprus,” he said. Orountiotis said that there had been no indications that tourism had been affected, and that his visit to Russia had been planned to coincide with the exhibition.
“It had been planned from before but now it is of more importance as we have many subjects to discuss apart from those that were already in our plan,” he said. “I am sure we will have to answer questions relating to what is happening and we will explain to them that tourism has not been affected in any way in Cyprus,” he added.
It is estimated that more than 550,000 Russian tourists will flock to Cyprus in 2013.