Booking cancellations are hitting Cyprus’s tourism sector following the drone strike on the British base at Akrotiri, with reservations being pulled for both the spring and summer seasons — prompting the President to call an emergency meeting with ministers and industry leaders yesterday.
The island’s association with the Middle East conflict — compounded by the arrival of European frigates in the region — has unsettled travellers and raised doubts about Cyprus as a safe destination. According to Phileleftheros, cancellations have been recorded for March and April, but the greater concern is the drop in summer bookings, which were already running below expectations. Tourism bodies have been put on alert.
The Presidential Palace meeting concluded with a priority: a coordinated information campaign, targeting partners in the tourism industry overseas, to restore Cyprus’s international image. The Deputy Ministry of Tourism will lead the effort alongside hoteliers and travel agents, with social media also being considered as a channel to push the message that Cyprus remains safe and open for business.
There are grounds for cautious optimism. Most airlines are returning to normal schedules, which is expected to reassure hesitant travellers, and tour operators have so far held their chartered flight capacity to Cyprus for the May–October season.
Cyprus Hotels Association president Thanos Michailides, speaking after the meeting, said financial support for the sector was not discussed. The priority, he said, was sustaining the sector’s growth and keeping tourist flow to the island on track.
CCCI Secretary-General Philokypros Roussounides welcomed the swift response, while urging all parties to be “very sparing and careful” about the image being projected abroad.
STEK president Akis Vavlitis was more direct. “The industry is ready to open completely normally, as it does every year,” he said. “We have been through enough crises like this one and it will be overcome. The climate in the international media — that Cyprus is somehow not back to normal — definitely needs to change.”
Read more: