Blogging Cyprus Tourism

Time to make Cyprus tourism unbroken

Repetitive campaign calls from the Ministry of Trade and the Cyprus travel agent association do not achieve influencing perceptions from UK consumers.

Cyprus as a destination achieved a respectable 14th position on the latest perceived cost analysis recently published by a study made out by Skyscanner. The survey by flight comparison website Skyscanner compared the cost of paying for various typical items – including a coffee, a beer, a meal, accommodation in a Marriott hotel and hiring a car from Avis – in 30 different countries. The study showed UK consumers to be way off the mark when it came to predicting which countries were the cheapest or most expensive. Although the 1,500 people questioned for the survey were correct in ranking India, Thailand and Morocco among the least expensive, they also thought Mexico would be the fourth most competitively priced destination whereas it is actually in the top 10 most expensive, both excluding and including flights.

Barry Smith, director and co-founder of Skyscanner, said: "We decided to undertake this research in response to consumer demand for greater price transparency on their trips abroad. Whilst the results are to some extent subjective, they do provide a broad guideline of total holiday cost.

"It is extremely interesting to see how many destinations challenge common perceptions and I am more than a little surprised to see France, a destination only a stone's throw away, emerge as the most expensive overall holiday.

"These figures show it is vital to consider all the hidden extras when planning a holiday, particularly that of the flight. Consumers shouldn't assume because a destination is known to be cheap when you get there, that the total cost won't escalate considerably once the cost of flights are added, making it a far pricier choice than some of the short-haul alternatives."

Despite the useful words of caution and advice, the most surprising thing to me was that it study found that the cheapest place to buy on the competitive scale this was Cyprus, followed by mainland Greece and South Africa. If the cost of a flight was then included Cyprus and Greece were still the cheapest, followed by Morocco.

Now, if tourism authorities and travel agents have been pushing since the last year for policies to enforce price control and pressure tourism at the bottom of the scale while not achieving change in perceptions - what will the next move be? To advertise it?

I believe we have the opportunity to expand on the perception that Cyprus is an excellent opportunity for valued tourism, but where will the tourism sector find the resources and the paying customers to offer more value at the existing prices?

See Full ranking as publish by the Guardian Online

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Does Cyprus Tourism need a new Cultural Narrative?

Heeding the call for action around the issues of Biodiversity Loss and climate change may sound at times,  just like another environmental campaign or even may be interpreted as disguised eco-tourism advertising for Tourism.
That's what you may see on the surface, but quickly recompose yourself and get over the fact that you were not educated  to care for the environment, nor to be empathic for that matter.

I love my parents and cherish the education that I've have had in the past, but the reality is that for the past 200 years, our understanding of our human nature has been based on a model of the human being that makes little sense today to perpetuate. With the advances of Cognitive science and research on the essence of the human nature, it's unthinkable that our products and services for the future still have to cater to human beings that are driven by needs anchored in materialistic, rational, pleasure-seeking and competitive selfishness. These types of clients for the tourism industry are to become extinct in the next 10 years.

The local environmental challenges have become inevitably global challenges by the way of how our thinking has evolved over the past decade, whereby understanding that everything we do intimately affects everyone else on this planet. This Biosphere consciousness has elevated the importance of local action and raises the chances that we as individuals can influence collective action independently.

We are naturally empathic; that's our nature, and the act of travel and tourism is a clear living example of this - we love to frame our experiences based on stories we read, share with one another. It's the storytelling that inspires us to act, to discover places and experience new territories and new ways to connect with people. Isn't it connecting with people the single most important reason why social platforms and social media have  managed to attract all age groups and interests.

So as the dialogue among, the cultural policy stakeholders in Europe on the new cultural policy challenges in 21st century, concludes that our capacity to respond to Climate change is intimately linked to the understanding that we have to re-think ourselves, how then to best prepare ourselves for empathic action?

If our objective is to deal with climate change by bringing human race together and establish a new economic paradigm to save the planet, it just may be that we may have to reinvent the narrative, our mission and how we express ourselves.  It's a fact that our cultural awakening won't just happen because of Biodiversity loss and climate change.

If our nature is to be empathic, we have to find a way to rethink our parenting, schooling, business and government model come together to nurture basic drives - extending empathy to our fellow creatures as one extended family - we create vows for our consciousnesses, the understanding that everything we do intimately affects everyone else in this planet - not just about carbon footprint - if we can begin to think in terms of Biosphere consciousness and politics we may be able to save ourselves and live on this planet with fellow creatures. Jeremy Rifkin

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The call for a Tourism from Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the prime natural asset of tourism, and we can safely affirm that in the case of Mediterranean Islands, biodiversity and the societal ecosystem to which it belongs, sustains the vast majority of the economic value of the tourism sector.

5 years ago the strategic plan for Cyprus Tourism affirmed that Cyprus should achieve becoming a sustainable destination in 2010, it could not be anticipated that the debate today would still be around the issue of freighting in more tourists and not about leading efforts for enriching the island's prime assets, and with it gaining more understanding of the impacts of Biodiversity loss.

Although it would seem logical to think that it is the private tourism sector that should have the prime interest in managing the multiplying economic effects and impacts of biodiversity along the value chain. This leads us to the paradox of Tourism's role for tackling societal issues linked to Biodiversity.  Obviating the fact that the tourism sector lags far behind other industries with regards to corporate responsibility initiatives, what really hurts an industry as ours, is it's incapacity to adopt innovative business practices that could actually expand economic opportunities, where strategic societal issues have always represented a challenge.

The reality we face about Tourism is that it is a competitive and specialized commercial sector, which does not have in its nature, the prioritization of development of society over profits.  Not only is this not a shareholder priority, it's a practical impossibility for CEO's to have this as part of their play-book. Operating with tight profit margins and the lack of ample cash reserves, the small scale enterprises which constitute the vast majority of operators, have little margin for risk taking.

In sum, since it is not economically viable for the Tourism sector to address the needs of generating economic value while adopting strategies that exceed returns for society, visitor value and enhancement of ecosystems.  Then, might one ask, with whom or where should this responsibility fall?

Confronted with the limitations above and the challenges posed by climate change, I still believe that the keys of prosperity for Tourism will result from acting upon leadership, innovation and aiming for the development of an industry that takes in Biodiversity.
We still have an excellent opportunity to collaborate among businesses, the scientific community and the dedicated NGOs, to set new heights of excellence for Cyprus as a tourism destination.  Understanding the requisites, taking advantage of the present opportunities and adding to new initiatives will help to forge this new path; for a Tourism from Biodiversity.

• But what is exactly Biodiversity and what should it mean to me?
• What are the economic multipliers that can I be managing better?
• What are the societal challenges linked to Biodiversity?
• What new initiatives will constitute this new Path?

The time is not only for answers, but for taking the steps to look for new collaborative and networking alternatives that will compensate the risks of hoping that business gets back to being as usual again.

What do you think? Want to share your questions with us?

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