Hotels and restaurants of the famous resort island are threatened with complete closure – at least such panic reports from the Cypriot media and professional communities are quoted by The Sun newspaper. Reason? – A sharp shortage of staff for hotels and restaurants in Cyprus, has led to widespread fears among residents and businessmen that they will not be able to work during the peak period of the high season.
Thus, the Famagusta branch of the Pasyxe hotel association said: “The reason for our concern is the serious lack of staff, which may even jeopardize the operation of several hotels. The closer we get to the opening of the summer tourist season, the more the concern of hoteliers grows. In many cases, the situation even endangers the work of some hotel units,” they assured in Cyprus.
Hotels see the solution in importing workers from third countries. To this end, the trade union called on the country’s government to speed up the process of issuing work permits for foreign employees. The call, in particular, is addressed to the Ministry of Labor – it is urged to immediately start issuing licenses for personnel from third countries “with the help of simple and short procedures.” Otherwise, all the successes of the Cypriot tourism sector “may be destroyed”.
At the same time, the publication’s sources mention that the problem is not new: in 2021, restaurants and hotels in Paphos made the same request. But the resort, represented by the president of the Association of Owners of Entertainment Centers of Paphos (Sikap), Angelos Onisiforou, warns that the problem has not gone anywhere this year.
Other services, by the way, will not please European tourists with unstoppable price increases. It is about renting cars. The average increase in rental fees in countries where this service is popular was 72%, according to experts at Zest Car Rental, a car rental broker. But Cyprus stood out – the seven-day rental price increased by 112% before the pandemic.