Cyprus holiday boss issues warning as panic spreads and 30,000 bookings cancelled

A popular holiday destination has assured British tourists that it’s still in business despite a drop in bookings. A top Cyprus tourism boss said that the industry is ‘booming’ despite ‘challenges.

Earlier this year there were mass holiday cancellations with 30,000 tourists cancelling their trips to the island, worth around £30million. But Deputy Minister of Tourism Kostas Koumis spoke to the Express and said that the country had actually seen a ‘remarkable growth’ in both visitor numbers and tourism revenue.

He said: "There is no doubt that the current year is a year full of challenges for the tourism industry worldwide. The financial situation in many European countries, the reduction in the purchasing power of million of households internationally, along with several other challenges have led to stakeholders concerns regarding the performance of the sector, nevertheless the performance of the Cyprus tourism industry remains strong and the sector shows resilience."

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He denied reports that Germany’s third-largest tour operator going bankrupt had exacerbated the situation. Mr Koumis said: "I have been informed that some statements by local tourism stakeholders and some wrong assessments in relation to a tour operator bankruptcy have led to negative publicity regarding the sector's performance, but that is not true. The reference was about the bankruptcy of the third largest German tour operator, which of course was another unpleasant development for the industry at international level, but it is worth mentioning that the market share of the tour operator in Cyprus was very small."

"The tour operator had only 30,000