Savvas Perdios, the first junior minister for tourism after the Cyprus Tourism Organisation was restructured, believes the critical time to see how Brexit will affect holidaymakers from the UK will be sometime in March when all the travel exhibitions take place.
“The (U.K.) tour operators have not revealed their intentions yet, as even they do not know what will happen. We have contingency plans, but there is also the possibility that nothing will happen,” Perdios said during his first press briefing on Monday.
British tourist arrivals have for decades driven the hospitality industry, with holidaymakers from the UK accounting for about 40% of all visitors, considered as the best market because their spend is spread across the entire tourist product (flights, hotels, villas, hire cars, restaurants and pubs).
“We will work towards implementing our strategic plan for Cyprus tourism and the next months will be a hectic period as we will have meetings with all stakeholders to hear their views on the matter,” Perdios said.
Perdios, 37, was sworn in by President Nicos Anastasiades on January 2 at a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace. Anastasiades announced the appointment of Perdios, Chief Operating Officer at Louis Hotels, on December 27, to take over the new post created from the restructuring of the CTO from a semi-state organisation with a state-appointed board to a fully-fledged government department.
The change, one of three junior ministries announced by Anastasiades almost six years ago, means that the tourism responsibilities are now removed from the overburdened portfolio of the Minister of Energy, Tourism, Commerce and Industry, with Perdios reporting directly to the president.
Due to the constitutional limitation of Cabinet posts, the Deputy Minister for Tourism and the Deputy Minister for Shipping, headed by Natasa Pilidou, a new post created in March 2018, do not have voting powers in the Council of Ministers, but participate equally. The third junior ministry, for Innovation, has yet to be announced.
Of the ten Cabinet posts, only two ministers (Labour and Transport) are female, with only one of the two new junior ministries handed to a woman.
The deputy government spokesman is also a woman, a first for Cyprus, but these appointments fall far short of filling the gender gap in a society where there is equality in ordinary government posts, but the numbers dwindle as the ranks rise.
Perdios, the son of Louis Hotels CEO Jason Perdios, was presented as having work experience with “large international organisations in the tourism industry” and is a finance graduate from the University of Warwick as well as in hotel management.
Government Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said last week that Perdios will undertake the implementation of the ‘National Strategy for Tourism’ for 2018-2030 through the necessary policy decisions, planning, incentives for investments and general supervision of the tourism sector.
Variations of the ‘national strategy’ have been on the agenda of all past Trade ministers and CTO boards, with none implemented to date.
After the swearing in ceremony at the President Palace, Anastasiades said that with the tourism industry directly contributing 13% to the national economy’s output, his administration introduced a number of changes, such as town planning incentives for the hotels sector, infrastructure projects such as the casino-resort, marinas, mixed-use developments and golf courses, as well as the promotion of specialised tourism, such as business and conference, culture, sports, health and religious holidays.
All these efforts, Anastasiades said, are a part of the strategy to extend the official tourist season and to resolve issues related to seasonality.
As a result, January-to-November arrivals reached a new record of 3.8 mln, while the implementation of a new national strategy foresees a plan for steady growth within the new world environment which includes sustainable development.
