Savvas Perdios, Cyprus’ Deputy Minister for Tourism, reiterated on Monday that he is optimistic that this year’s tourist season will fair better than 2021, despite the loss of tourists from Ukraine Russia, Cyprus’ second largest market, due to the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to the press at the sidelines of the Cyprus Hotel Managers Association Annual General Meeting, Perdios said Cyprus in 2022 will attract increased tourist flows from the United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria compared with last year.
Responding to a question on his contacts abroad in the recent months, Perdios said he visited at least 20 countries in the last eight months, including the UK and Russia, Cyprus first and second largest tourist markets respectively.
“It seems that all these markets, with the exception of Russia and Ukraine, will go better than 2021 and certain markets, such as the UK, Israel, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria will go much better than 2021,” Perdios said, adding “this makes us optimistic that our joint goal to go better than 2021 is feasible.”
The Tourism Ministry estimates that due to the war in Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions against Cyprus, Cyprus will lose 800,000 tourists from Russian and Ukraine.
“It is granted that these hundreds of thousands of tourists cannot be replaced within some weeks,” Perdios added, noting however these losses could be partially offset due to the work done in recent years by all stakeholders in developing new potential markets.
Source: Cyprus News Agency