UK media reports about ‘terrified Britons’ ready to ‘flee Cyprus’ in the run-up and immediate aftermath of air strikes on Syrian government targets from the RAF base at Akrotiri early Saturday were described as scaremongering by officials on Monday.
The Cyprus Tourism Organisation and Cyprus Hotels Association have assured there have been no cancellations of bookings made by foreign tourists who will visit Cyprus.
CTO Acting Director General Marinos Menelaou told the Cypriot press that that organisation is following the situation and responds to a limited number of questions posed to it on this issue from abroad, underlining that Cyprus remains a secure European destination and that no flying schedule to and from Cyprus has been affected due to the recent activity concerning Syria.
“There has been no cancellation and tourism programmes continue normally. Moreover no travel advice has been issued by the UK or any other country which is a tourist market for us, that would alter Cyprus’ status as a tourist destination. In fact, one popular UK tabloid referred to Cyprus as being the 36th safest country in the world, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF),” Menelaou said. He assured that the CTO is ready to receive large numbers of visitors.
On his part, Cyprus Hotels Association Director General Zacharias Ioannides said that the situation is normal and that flights operate normally and tour operators programmes remain as initially planned, expressing reserved optimism that Cyprus would achieve this year better results than last year, which was a record year as regards tourist arrivals.
“There is no reason for concern. The flow of visitors continues normally,” Ioannides stressed, adding that there had been a slowdown in bookings in the run up to the air strikes but that was a global phenomenon “not just Cyprus” and was related to concerns over a wider third world war. “It was a normal reaction for people to ‘wait and see’,” he said.
Cyprus has been seeing record tourism arrivals over the past three years and is looking forward to another bumper year in 2018. The UK is Cyprus’ biggest source of the three million tourist arrivals last year, followed by Russia.
Authorities and British residents themselves in Cyprus were at pains to stress on Monday that there would be no impact from the limited strikes and that it was a one-off message to the Syrian government on its alleged use of chemical weapons.
Neither the UK nor the US has changed their travel advisories for Cyprus this month. The UK advisory was last updated in March and remains current as of Monday. The US advisory is a year old.
A British High Commission spokesperson said: “The fact of the matter is we have not changed our travel advice for Cyprus and have no plans to do so. The tone of the articles in the British press is not right. It’s scaremongering.”
British bases spokesman Sean Tully said they had seen no evidence of British residents or tourists wanting to flee Cyprus. “It’s very safe to come to Cyprus. The PM (Theresa May) stated her case clearly at the weekend. We stand by the PM’s comments. Cyprus is a very safe place,” he added.
