Cyprus’ Deputy Minister of Tourism, Kostas Koumis, and the President of the Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Initiative, Philippos Drousiotis on Thursday referred to the need for collective action to deal with climate change and the consequences for tourism.

They were addressing the conference “Is climate change a threat to tourism?”, which takes place in Nicosia and is co-organised by the Deputy Ministry of Tourism and the Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Initiative.

Drousiotis noted, among other things, that without timely actions there will be a decrease in visitors, mainly in Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain, due to the effects of climate change.

In his greeting, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, said that it was everyone's duty to join forces to deal with the effects of climate change.

The goal of the conference, he said, was to “awaken” the country's tourist community, “to realise that climate change is indeed a threat to tourism and to see how to deal with it”. He noted that climate change has, “unfortunately,” this summer left its mark, and referred to the floods in Greece, Italy, Spain, Libya, and other regions of the planet.

“It is the duty of all of us to join forces to face the effects of climate change, to make decisions together,” he added.

Koumis said that the current Government has already taken decisions in the direction of dealing with climate change.

Drousiotis, in his own greeting, said that the aim of the conference was to place the issue of climate change at the top of the priorities of every entrepreneur and worker in tourism, in cooperation with the locals and foreign visitors to the country.

“Our priority is for Cyprus to become a sustainable and responsible destination, in the implementation of policies that will implement the goals that have been set globally to deal with climate change,” he noted, adding that the impact of this year's fires in southern Europe resulted in the loss of tourists in Greece and Italy and that, without timely actions, there will be an even greater decrease in visitors, mainly in Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain.

He noted that, according to a recent European study, Cyprus will face a decrease in tourist demand of up to 8% in the worst-case scenario for temperature rising to 4 degrees Celsius, Greece up to 7%, Portugal and Spain, 3%.

The effort to deal with climate change must be collective, Drousiotis stressed, adding that this conference proves that the tourism sector cares and will face climate crisis, the effects of which, he said, although not as direct, are much worse than the recent pandemic.

Drousiotis mentioned that the Department of Forestry will provide 300 saplings, one for each conference participant, that will be planted in the area of the Aglantzia Municipality, in Nicosia.