Paphos Life

Its a very sad and difficult situation now with this dreadful virus, but I wanted to ask if there is any feeling there amongst locals who depend on tourism how they feel about when it might restart? We've been coming to lovely Cyprus for about 18 years and feel desperately sorry for businesses and people affected by this, but wondered if the government can or will support them if they lose the entire summer season? If not there will have to be a tricky decision made whether to allow tourists in with the associated risk or lose all income from tourism this summer.

At the moment, we have a strong lock down here, the police firmly in control. A curfew at night from 9pm6am.. Only food stores and pharmacies, garages, petrol stations and bakeries open. The airports are closed apart from some cargo flights, we are only allowed out 1 time per day. All hotels are closed, except a few being used by the Govt for quarantine purposes.
It’s too soon to speculate when the restrictions in place now for everyone will be lifted,
At present Cyprus is closed to tourists.
I know that the island will want to host tourists as soon as Its practical, but whether they want to run the risk of tourists bringing the virus here again with them, is even harder to speculate,

Yes, local businesses and enterprises will definitely need money as soon as possible, but its a Govt decision. They are giving limited support where they can. But these are exceptional circumstances with a terrible virus and one would need a crystal ball to give you a definite answer at present.

Dee

Itßs also a question of how many tourists will still feel like flying.

Hi, yes I have read all about your current situation and curfews etc far worse than here in the UK , but you partially answered my question as you said there is only limited government support so I wondered if there will be any pressures coming from the tourism sector in due course once the worst of the virus is over?

Nobody knows. You may as well ask for the exact temperature on June 25th.

Regarding " I have read all about your current situation and curfews etc far worse than here in the UK "
I believe you are wrong... it should be ' Curfews etc Far Better than in the UK '

I will want to fly again one day ! Maybe as you are expats you don't work in tourism so you don't understand my concern or question. I was thinking of all the places we used to visit and hoping they can survive this crisis.

This is a question no one knows the answer to. Its the same the World over,

Dominic wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 9:31 pm Nobody knows. You may as well ask for the exact temperature on June 25th.

What are the odds on 31 degrees. I could be tempted to a small wager LOL

I would say that this year is a total write off for the tourist industry in general – The current UK lockdown was initially set to be reviewed at the end of May along with the many UK employees who have been Furloughed from Mid March to 31st May at which point a relaxing of lockdown would be discussed and Sanctions lifted or Extended as the need requires – Having spoken to an Airline today along with info gleaned from the ABTA information website it seems that many pre-booked Holidays are obviously not going to happen and the general advice is do not cancel your Holiday if you have it booked but postpone it until a later date and the advice is if you are offered a credit note until 31st July which is the current guideline then you are to accept this and at said date if your Holiday is still not happening then you can claim a full refund if you desire or postpone it again until a later date – The reason given is that many deposits and payments have been made to Hotels and the travel companies are having difficulty retrieving these payments from said hotels which is causing a massive cash flow problem at the moment for Holiday Companies. I think that if we get to the end of July and it still looks bleak then it will be a disaster for everyone concerned both commercially and financially and many may not recover from this.

https://www.abta.com/news/coronavirus-outbreak

How many hotels, airlines, holiday companys. Etc, Will still be operating when this is over.

The thing to remember though, is that it effects everybody.

WHL
Exactly – Many of these Airline’s have the aircraft on huge Mortgages/Loans or whatever you want to call them and when they are grounded the bill does not get paid. It has already come to light today that the UK Banks have been warned that their behaviour is unacceptable for not trying to support ailing viable businesses when the tax payer bailed the Banks out in 2008. The knock on effect of all of this Government help and support is going to cost the taxpayer an absolute fortune over the next 30 years or so and businesses that are saved by this support will probably wish that they had just gone bust. Everything is going to be so expensive a Holiday will probably be the last thing you want to spend your hard earned on even though you would love one.

And – Dominic that’s correct It will effect every single person in one way or another whether in business or an employee for an awful long time.

If the government's strategy works and the virus is eradicated in Cyprus over the coming months, then it makes sense for the ban on passenger aircraft to continue until the rest of the world is equally successful and/or a vaccine is produced.
Based on the above I would say the earliest tourism could restart is next summer.

Cyprus will not survive until next summer you will have no economy left!

If you believe in God then God knows! If you don't He still knows!

I would be very reluctant to embark any plane to fly to any country in the next 12/18 months nobody knows who a carrier of COVID-19 is or if any country has totally irradiated the virus as some have very mild symptoms and maybe not even realise that they have the virus.
The people that think they are invincible are the major threat in society I hope with these lockdowns in place that everyone has the sense to adhere to what’s required of them in order that the chart starts to move in another direction and some normality will return to our lives and that the economy might start moving again

The Cyprus Government seem to have this more in control than the UK Government, I ventured out today for essential supplies and could not believe what I was seeing, The majority of shops are closed, all pubs, clubs, gyms etc are closed but the number of people just wandering around in groups, families with kids on bikes and with dogs stopping to talk to each other as they passed, loads of joggers weaving in and out of people on the pavements and not a Police car to be seen anywhere, If the virus is around in my area everyone is going to get it.

Where are you?

I don't know where you are Trans Am but here in Keswick, the northern part of the Lake District there is literally no=one on the street other the odd person out for exercise and/or shopping. The police in this area made a definite point that the Lake District is closed for the duration and now it seems that this has managed to keep away all 2nd home owners, tourists etc. I think it's more the people in such as your area rather than authorities that are the problem.