Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tatiana]

Don't you think that Cyprus tourism is in danger now? Seems that tourists get dissatisfied because of all these road repairs in summer, increasing prices and decreasing quality of services provided... On top of this assession of Cyprus to the EU and introduction of visas will discourage growing Russian tourist market from coming to Cyprus. Can something be done?

[Aris]

Tourism was hit world-wide after the events in NYC last year.
In Limassol some years ago the situation with the roads was much worst. Now they improved a lot. I believe the same is true for most places.
The prices are indeed a problem, but why you said about decreasing quality of services? How exactly you came to this conclusion? Can you explain?

About the visas problem I hope that the government will arrange it in such a way that will not affect the flow of Russian tourists significantly. Unfortunately this is something we can’t avoid. On the other hand when Cyprus will become EU member more EU citizens might be encouraged to visit our island. Maybe Russia can join the EU also?

[Tatiana]

about the roads: didn't you notice that they start repairing roads exactly in summer, right when the tourists are supposed to come? and although the quality of the roads is getting better, inconvenience for tourists because of presense of road works and increased traffic jams is obvious.
about the quality of services: that is what the tourists say in their letters to editors of newspapers and in their posts on the i-net.. complaints about poor arrangement of excursions, unprofessional guides, often bad service in hotels and rude personnel (in 3-4 star hotels).

[Aris]

For the biggest part of last summer there were very few road works in tourist areas. They just start working on them again. But those road works are needed. As you said the quality of roads got a lot better the last few years. Without road works this wouldn’t be possible.

About the quality of services: I’ve never used the services of the people that do excursions in Cyprus, so I can’t comment on that. But I’ve been in several hotels in Europe and the US and I believe our hotels compare very favorably to those. Still, I don’t doubt that some hotels in Cyprus might not offer the expected quality, but those are just a small minority in my opinion.