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Deputy Minister: “Good signs” from Scandinavia and Switzerland

28/03/2022 09:02

There are good sings from Scandinavian countries and Switzerland, as these markets are expected to boost the Cyprus tourism industry this year, offsetting some of the losses by Russian and Ukraine amidst the Ukrainian crisis, Deputy Minister for Tourism Savvas Perdios told CNA.

Perdios travelled to Sweden and Switzerland for contacts with tourist stakeholders. Cyprus is trying to replace tourist losses from Russia, the island’s second largest tourist market, due to Russia’s invasion to Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions imposed by the West against Moscow.

“It seems that signs from the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland this year are good. They are among the markets that will support us significantly compared with last year,” Perdios told CNA.

He added that both demand and the programmes from tour operators have significantly increased compared with last year, and are close to the levels of 2019 or under some conditions may surpass 2019 traffic. 2019 marked Cyprus’ highest ever tourist arrivals.

According to Perdios, these conditions are associated with the discussions carried out by the Ministry over extraordinary joint advertisements in these countries, as well as with the fact that some tourist destinations such as Croatia and Bulgaria have shown reduced demand due to their proximity with the war zone.

“Some windows have opened for us through tour operators who are considering revising their programmes to these countries and Cyprus is placed as one of the destinations which could attract additional tourist traffic,” he said.

The Deputy Minister also noted that last week, Cyprus ranked No 1 in bookings in Sweden among all destinations.

The above reinforce the Ministry’s readings that the decline in demand for travel to Cyprus during the first two weeks of the war in Ukraine has been reversed and online search for Cyprus is rising again in all markets except from Russia and Ukraine, he added.

Replying to a question, the Deputy Minister said the air connection between Cyprus and Scandinavia and Switzerland exceeds the levels of 2019.

He said that Finnair has established flights from Helsinki to Cyprus for the first time since 2017, Norwegian has direct flights from all Scandinavian capitals to Cyprus, Eurowings has slotted direct flights from Stockholm to Cyprus for the first time, while chartered flights from Bern, Switzerland, to Cyprus will be held for the first time as well.

Replying to a question about the first signs for the 2022 tourist season in Cyprus, Perdios said that signs remain the same as indicated in the last weeks following the Russian invasion to Ukraine.

“Despite difficulties associated with the Ukrainian crisis, as things stand it is possible to have the same numbers as 2021. We are talking of a season at the same levels of last year,” he said. Cyprus’ tourist arrivals in 2021 reached 1.94 million compared with the pre-Covid-19 all time record of almost 4 million in 2019.