Cyprus hopes EU summit can do what travel ads can’t: Bring tourists back

Cyprus hopes EU summit can do what travel ads can’t: Bring tourists back

The island’s biggest industry has taken a hit from the war in Iran — now Nicosia is betting a parade of EU leaders can help revive it.

By SEBASTIAN STARCEVIC

Illustration by Natália Delgado/POLITICO

Cyprus has a new pitch for nervous holidaymakers: If it’s safe enough for 27 EU leaders, surely it’s safe enough for your beach break.

The Mediterranean island is hoping an upcoming gathering of Europe’s political heavyweights will do more than fill motorcades and briefing rooms — it might also help rescue a tourism industry badly rattled by war on its doorstep.

Cyprus lies just 1,200 kilometers from Iran. In early March, days after the U.S. and Israel launched the conflict, a Shahed drone struck a British naval base on the island, triggering a rush of trip cancellations as foreign governments warned travelers to stay away.

Now Nicosia is trying to move forward. As holder of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, Cyprus will host all 27 EU leaders over two days later this month — first in the resort town of Ayia Napa on April 23, then in the capital, Nicosia, on April 24.

For Cyprus, the summit is more than a diplomatic set piece. It is also a giant, high-profile reassurance campaign.

“Above all, it is a vote of confidence to the Republic of Cyprus,” Kostas Koumis, Cyprus’ minister in charge of tourism, told POLITICO. “The organization of a such important event in Cyprus … may definitely spread the message even louder that safety is a top priority.”

The hope is simple: A summit normally associated with security cordons, sleep-deprived aides and bilateral drama might also help sell Cyprus as open, calm and very much still in business.

The leaders themselves are unlikely to swap policy papers for pool loungers. But Antonis Orthodoxou, spokesperson for Cyprus’ tourism industry association ACTTA, said the optics matter.

“Hopefully this [summit] will be the beginning of making the people trust more that Cyprus is safe,” he said. “If you are coming to Cyprus, you’re going to see that the island is nothing to be afraid of.”

There is also the not-so-small matter of the immediate economic boost. Tourism makes up roughly 15 percent of Cyprus’ economy, and a small Brussels invasion comes with its own perks: hundreds of hotel rooms booked, restaurants packed, bars busy, and a small army of officials, security staff and journalists all needing somewhere to sleep, eat and file from.

“A lot of people working on the EU will come,” Orthodoxou said. “So it will bring some money.”

The summit was also meant in part as a conspicuous show of support for Cyprus, after several major EU meetings on the island were shelved in the first phase of the Iran war, an EU official said.

The damage has not just been psychological. Airfares have surged as fuel costs climbed, with some return tickets from Brussels topping €1,000 — a painful blow for an island that depends on air links to stay plugged into the rest of Europe. A Cypriot official told POLITICO the government, which organized special flights to Brussels for the duration of its Council presidency, was planning to book more but had to scale back those plans due to the war. A second official described the prices as a disaster for Cyprus.

Even if the summit helps restore confidence, officials are under no illusion that one big EU photo-op will fully undo the damage.

“Definitely last year’s record performance results will not be achieved,” Koumis said. “The month of March has been affected, the month of April has been affected as well.”