According to the Employers’ and Industrialists Federation (OEB), 2009 will be a critical year for tourism. In the January 2009 issue on the developments of the tourist sector, OEB said that “Cyprus will not be competitive in 2009 due to the holiday prices. The improvements and differentiations in the tourist product for the strengthening of competitiveness via the improvement of the quality unfortunately have not been achieved to the degree that the Strategic Plan expected”.

According to OEB, the economic crisis hits the main markets of Cyprus such as Britain. “But the other markets are in recession too, while the ruble in Russia has already been devalued against the euro”, it added.

The Federation referred to the first meeting of the Crisis Management Committee on January 13, 2009, stressing that all tourism organizations submitted certain proposals against the crisis. “These proposals aim to push package prices down so as to encourage reservations, which are currently low”, it said.

“Unfortunately, no decisions have been taken. Time pressures and any delay will affect the developments on tourism, given that this is the period that serious decisions are taken for the next few months”, the announcement concluded.