Banks are eager to see tourists coming to Cyprus since thousands of their clients’ financial future depends on visitors boosting the economy over the holiday island’s summer and autumn months.
Insiders told Philenews that even though some 30,000 companies and self-employed people will remain shut between Monday and May 9 – when the island’s third lockdown ends – the situation is still manageable.
But, they warned, if the lockdown is prolonged and extended beyond May 9 then things will become more difficult, especially for small and very small businesses.
Because they will be desperate for liquidity and the banks will – de facto – have to consider whether these businesses can continue to be viable.
The big question is when British and Russian tourists will start coming over so that the tourist season gets a warm-up.
Arrivals depend not only on the epidemiological situation in major tourist markets of Cyprus, but also on the evolution of the pandemic within the island. And at the moment the situation is not at all encouraging, one insider also said.
