THE CHAIRMAN of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) yesterday begged parliament to be understanding and approve a supplementary budget that will almost certainly be submitted within the year, to assist the recovering tourism sector.
After a ten-year decline, arrivals were up last year by over ten per cent to 2.33 million but the sector is still a long way from a full recovery.
Alekos Oroundiotis, who was invited to the House Finance Committee to discuss the CTO’s 2012 budget, said constant reductions in the organisation’s funding were affecting its efforts to boost tourism figures.
“The continuous cuts on the CTO’s budget, peaking with parliament’s recent decision to reduce state funds by 8.0 per cent, have created huge problems in the organisation’s efforts to increase tourist arrivals and revenue for 2012 and also in years to come,” said Oroundiotis after the meeting.
He added that he had called on MPs to approve a supplementary budget later in the year, “to cover the organisation’s basic needs, mainly in the sectors of projection, advertisement and enriching our tourist product”.
According to Oroundiotis, cuts in the CTO funds have affected the organisation’s collaborations with travel agents abroad, as well as efforts to promote Cyprus in other countries.
“2012 will be a year of challenges for the organisation, but also tourism,” he said. “The British market [the island’s biggest] is still presenting stability problems, like the previous year, and is unpredictable to a great extent, while losses in tourists from other countries are also expected, due to the economic crisis.”
He conceded the Russian market continued to offer tourism a considerable boost. “But from the moment that we have new routes from seven new Russian airports, we need to carry out an advertising campaign to have the desirable results,” he said.
Last month, the government, with airport operator Hermes, slashed passenger fees for airlines willing to commit to a five-year stint in Cyprus. Low-cost carrier Ryanair was the first to sign up.
The new contract with Ryanair and Hermes Airports will help increase tourist arrivals to a great extent, said Oroundiotis. The deal foresees an additional 600,000 passengers in the next year through Ryanair’s 14 new destinations from Paphos, which include Krakow, Memmingen, Bergamo, Oslo, Pisa, Rome and Stockholm
“But again, we need to advertise in these new destinations,” Oroundiotis said. .
The CTO’s budget for 2012 was already down €4 million compared to 2011. It was further reduced by parliament as part of a move to cut spending in semi-government bodies, bringing the total reduction to €9.2 million over the 2011 budget. This year’s budget now stands at €62.5 million, which is a staggering €40 million less than it was in 2009.
House finance committee chairman, DIKO’s Nicolas Papadopoulos, wondered whether the CTO would be able to live up to its duties, referring to Oroundiotis’ plea as “cry of despair”.
“We are greatly concerned to hear these forecasts and estimations,” said Papadopoulos. But he added, “I don’t think it is the €5 million that was cut by parliament that is the problem, but rather the €35 million that was slashed by the government [since 2009]. Certain others decided a long time ago to downgrade the CTO’s role.”
Cyprus Mail
