Hotels in Cyprus pay three times more for electricity than their counterparts in Greece, the president of the Paphos branch of the Cyprus Hotel Association Thanos Michaelides told the Cyprus News Agency on Wednesday as he reiterated the association’s call for cheaper power.
Michaelides said that hotels are invoiced under the commercial tariff rather than the industrial one and said it was essential to modernise and restructure the Electricity Authority of Cyprus so as to cut costs and reduce electricity prices.
More expensive energy made hotels less competitive and constituted indirect tax which was unjustified, he said.
Looking back on 2019, Michaelides said this had been a difficult year because of the bankruptcy of Germania, which practically dried up the German market and tourism giant Thomas Cook — a major player in the UK market which is the most important for Cyprus.
As regards bookings for winter including Christmas, he said these were below those of last year and did not augur well for summer although it was too early to say how the season will go.
Indications from Germany are good with the launch of new flights while as regards the UK there is ‘very cautious optimism’ that bookings will not be as down as they are in winter.
