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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