CYPRUS will have two of its proposed new marinas in the next two years, Lillikas said during yesterday’s CT Ones conference.

The Tourism Minister said that the cabinet had on Wednesday approved the plans for the Limassol marina and negotiations were beginning on the tenders.

“With goodwill from both sides, the next two or three months could lead to an agreement and the start of construction this year,” he said.

Referring to the plans for a marina in Paphos, Lillikas said the deadline for submissions of applications for the competition had expired. He said he also expected developments on that this year. The proposed marina in Paphos would have berth space for 1,000 yachts, and facilities on land such as restaurants, apartments and shopping malls.

The chosen location is Kissonerga, about 10km from the centre of Paphos. The ambitious project is estimated to cost close to £100 million: £60 million for the building of the marina and supporting facilities, and the remaining £40m for land development in the surrounding area.
On the upgrading of the existing marina at Larnaca, Lillikas said it was at the stage of prequalification for those companies that had expressed an interest.

“I am certain that Cyprus in the next two, three years will acquire at least its first two new marinas,” he said.

It has only been recently that the government has made some headway on the marinas issue, which has been in the pipeline for more than a decade. In the meantime Cyprus has lost out on yachting tourism to neighbouring countries as the two existing marinas at Larnaca and Limassol do not have enough berth space to cope with the demand.

Under the government’s plan Larnaca would be upgraded marina from 400 to 1,000 berths, while Limassol would have 1,000 berths, Paphos 1,000, Ayia Napa 650 and Paralimni 250-300.

North tourism ‘no competition’

TOURISM chiefs in the south of the island do not fear an explosion of tourism in the Turkish Cypriot north and do not see it as competition, Lillikas said.

Lillikas said Cyprus was already successfully competing with such huge destinations as Turkey and Egypt.

“If we take on the mindset that the occupied areas is a competitor it will damage the Cyprus tourist industry,” he said.

“We are not concerned about the occupied areas”.

CTO chairman Photis Photiou echoed the Minister’s statements. “The big tour operators that hold 80 per cent of the market worldwide have not included the occupied areas in their programme,” he said.
According to Photiou there are currently some 12,000 tourist beds in the north. This compares with over 100,000 in the south of the island. In addition only 6,000 of those beds are taken by foreign tourists. The remainder would be from Turkey, he said.

From the remaining 160,000 tourists, Photiou said half were British.

The Greek Cypriot side clocked up 2.7 million tourists last year of which more than half were Britons.

Tourist chiefs have been keeping a close eye on developments in the north since the checkpoints opened in April 2003.

The CTO has also prepared an information leaflet in collaboration with the Foreign Ministry that has been dispatched to all embassies and tourist offices of the Republic abroad, outlining the exploitation of Greek Cypriot properties in the north.

There are 110 hotel units operating in the north with 12,000 beds of which only 1,150 are legally owned by Turkish Cypriots.

In addition to the 12,000 beds in operation in the north, there are currently 118 tourism-related sites under construction with a capacity for another 12,500 beds.


Threat to withdraw EuroNews adverts

C.T.O. chairman Photits Photiou said he had personally written to EuroNews concerning its broadcasting of a programme which centred on the north and included a profit-making estate agent illegally selling Greek Cypriot properties.

Photiou said that the CTO cooperates with EuroNews for advertising purposes and has been working with them on a contract basis for a number of years. He said the contract for 2006 was ready but not yet signed.

“I sent the letter to EuroNews myself,” said Photiou. “We are waiting for an answer.” He said if the reply or explanations was not satisfactory, the CTO would think whether or not to renew its contract.

The CyBC, which broadcasts EuroNews has also taken issue with the programme. The controversial broadcast was aired on Saturday afternoon in EuroNews’ Europeans current affairs segment, and lasted eight minutes. The authorities are upset because the report did not even have one reference to the fact that the land being used by developers belonged to Greek Cypriots.

Lillikas said on Monday that the government would also make representations over the broadcast.