War jitters hit tourism bookings
Fingers crossed: that’s how industry stakeholders see the fate of the tourism sector this year amid the war raging in the Persian Gulf. Prospective travelers, already spooked, are either canceling bookings or holding off. By May, it should become clear whether this tourist year will be a dud.
Travel agents are seeing some worrying signals, although they’re quick to stress it’s still too early to tell if the business is headed for a hard landing.
Dinos Kakkouras, honorary president of the Association of Cyprus Travel & Tourism Agents (Actta) told us that flights to and from the Middle East have been affected.
Flights from and to Tel Aviv are continuing. Amman, Jordan, is largely unaffected. There are even planes from Dubai – though fewer than usual. As far as Qatar goes, flights have stopped.
From Europe, traffic is more or less normal. Airlines are operating their normal routes – whether scheduled or chartered flights.
Still, overall bookings for March and April have dipped – both arrivals and departures.
“March, April and May are very important for arrivals and for bookings for the next period, the summer,” Kakkouras said.
March is when foreigners start booking for Cyprus in earnest.
Package tours for the summer are usually done around April time.
For Catholic Easter this week, there’s also been a drop in bookings compared to the same period last year.
Kakkouras had no data on hand for March.
“It’s all about travelers’ psychology – they want to make sure it’s safe to visit here,” he offered.
“As the weeks go by, the problem grows. If March and April are ‘lost’, it’s definitely an issue but not necessarily panic stations as far as the whole year is concerned. But if this continues throughout May, then there’s a real problem.”
The cautious optimism, he explains, derives from past experience:
“Once a crisis – like a regional war – is over, traffic immediately rebounds.”
Also, January and February air traffic to the island had posted excellent results – even beating 2025 which was a bumper year for tourism.
Asked about some ‘cutoff date’ by which if bookings don’t normalise, then one can sound the alarm, Kakkouras said he can’t pin it down.
“Let’s wait and see. But certainly the numbers are down.”
“We still feel that Cyprus is a safe destination. We believe it genuinely, it’s not just a marketing ploy.”
Kakkouras said that on April 17 they’ll have the numbers for arrivals for March.
The statistical service (CyStat) publishes passenger data on every 17th of the month for the previous month.
As to air fares, Kakkouras said they haven’t been jacked up due to rising fuel prices – at least not for the time being.
He recalled that on the day French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived at the Andreas Papandreou airbase in Paphos to express their solidarity with Nicosia, “we got a lot of questions from our partners abroad (travel agents) asking what’s going on in Cyprus. The same happened after the Akrotiri drone incident and the media reporting about it.”
Meantime the slowdown is also reflected in hotel reservations.
Thanos Michaelides, head of the Cyprus Hotels Association (Pasyxe) spoke of booking cancellations for the month of March – and for April.
A few cancellations have been seen for May as well.
“For March as a whole, reservations were quite low. However, starting in the last week of March, the rate of bookings picked up somewhat,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
“If three out of the 12 months of the year are problematic, there will be an effect on tourism for the whole of 2026. We look at the industry in aggregate, over the period of a year.”
But like Kakkouras, Michaelides insisted: “The image we project is that Cyprus is a safe place to visit – positive messaging.”
Still, he conceded that the rate of reservations for this summer has slowed down compared to last year.
Hotel bookings in Cyprus typically start right after Christmas, taking advantage of discounts. By April, the special offers get snapped up.
“Bookings happen continually. But the bulk takes place between January and May.”
Israelis tend to book at the last minute. Brits do it earlier. It depends on the market.
Coming to the aid of the hotel industry, the government has rolled out a scheme subsidising 30 per cent of payroll for April. Hoteliers had wanted 50 per cent, but the government said no.
The scheme went live on Friday, April 3. The subsidy applies to the wages of hotel executives, management and staff.
Michaelides said the scheme caps the subsidised amount at €1,324.
“For example, a person earning €1,500 will get a subsidy of €500. Someone on a salary of €5,000 will get a maximum subsidy of €1,324.”
To qualify, hotels must show either a reduction in income of 40 per cent compared to April 2025, or an occupancy rate of 60 per cent or lower.
Applications for compensation will be filed after the month of April.
With the scheme just having been green-lit, there’s no data yet on how many hotels have applied.
As to how many hotels will open for business in April, some have, said Michaelides.
“Is there a date by which we can call this a crisis for the hotel industry? We can’t really say.
“Still, if the situation doesn’t improve by May, by then it becomes harder to recover lost occupancy rates. Tourists will have made alternative arrangements by then, other destinations.”
Bottom line: no one can call it, as no one knows when the war will end.
We contacted the deputy ministry of tourism asking what picture they have of the industry.
They said that whereas there have been a number of cancellations and a slowdown in bookings, that has affected mainly the month of March.
April also got impacted, but as time goes by, the negative trend appears to be turning around.
The ministry said they remain optimistic for a successful season, despite the aforementioned difficulties.
On whether they have an action plan to go into effect as soon as the war ends, the ministry said they already have one in place.
“We have a marketing and PR campaign running in important tourist markets for us, and we’re in close contact with our strategic partners so we assure they receive accurate information about the situation in our country.”
As part of the campaign, the government hosted a number of journalists from several European countries. In the meetings, the administration conveyed that “all activities related to the tourism sector continue uninterrupted – activities that welcome thousands of visitors for sporting, cultural and other events”.
Regarding what measures the government might take for the airline industry, to maintain air connectivity to Cyprus, the ministry said these have already been made public in conjunction with Hermes Airports.
The incentives for airlines have been published on the Hermes website here.