Zekiye Yucel: “Uncontrolled developments may fill a few pockets but are bad for the economy”

Q. Is the bankruptcy of TWI an issue that affects TWI alone or Does the bankruptcy of TW1 highlights problems engrained within North Cyprus’ tourism industry?

A. Failure of TWI is certainly going to affect North Cyprus tourism industry, as there are already some future bookings that are likely to be cancelled instead of being re-protected by other operators. Once travellers loose their confidence in the destination or the company and are given a choice to receive their money back they will think twice before re-booking their holiday or their circumstances may have changed since the booking date and they simply do not want to travel now or found a better alternative to travel to.

This may seem minor, but in my opinion it is very important as we are talking about passengers that were already included in the figures as sold and they are now will not be travelling to North Cyprus so we are as a country loosing momentum from existing business let alone attracting new ones.

Q. Do you believe the recent bankruptcy of TWI will paint a negative image of North Cyprus tourism abroad?

A. Partly yes, and this is all depending on how TWI management will act upon bringing those already abroad travellers back home. Providing that everything is handled professionally the affect will reduced to minimum.

Q. Direct flights to Larnaca then cross over via the checkpoint to Northern Cyprus, is this kind of competition fair? If it is not, then what solution should be implemented?

A. Flights to Larnaca definitely affected the Turkish flight carriers but this was inevitable. When there is a free market and conditions are set, every commercial company must set their market expectations right and arrange their policies accordingly. On the other hand, flights to Larnaca have helped the villa development of Northern Cyprus enormously, as cheap charter; flights suddenly became an option for those families looking to purchase their holiday homes abroad. Without the cheap direct flight options into Larnaca I do not think that properties would have been as attractive as they have been in the last two years. Majority of the tourist market, which we are all hoping to attract, continued travelling with Turkish carriers via Turkey, as this option still proved to be a better and more competitive option for many operators.

It is inevitable that Larnaca will be even more popular by other UK based flagship carriers in the 2007 due to increased property sales in both North & South of Cyprus so to be prepared for a tough competition our Turkish carriers must recognise this as a growing competition and act accordingly.

Q. What should the government’s role be in tourism? Does it involve more intervention in the tourism industry in order to make it more competitive?

A. Definitely yes. New avenues must be tried and tested along with the ones that are already working. Unfortunately, until there is a solution to North Cyprus problem the TRNC government must offer financial help to airlines and registered tour operators with their marketing spending.

Q. Due to the environmental impact of mass construction work in Northern Cyprus is it appropriate to now change product or market?

A. The market conditions are dynamic and change its audience weather we want it or not. When there is a development of this size is taking place it is inevitable that product will change as well accordingly. The traditional traveller that visited North Cyprus over the last 20 years is certainly changing and we need to adapt our product to cater for that too.

Nevertheless, this is not unique to North Cyprus. It is taking place in many countries across the world and there is a growing market for overseas properties abroad due to current low interest rates, so UK residents are seeing this kind of investment as a good source of income for their hard earned cash.

However, as a receiving country, it is up to us how we manage this demand and benefit from this economically not just for the immediate term but in the long terms as well. Sustainable environmentally friendly tourism can grow side by side with planned respectable developments that are not only good quality but also aesthetically beautiful and useful.  Uncontrolled developments may fill few constructors’ pockets and make local economy look thriving in the short run but we will all pay for the damage as a nation and businesses for years to come. This has already started showing its effects in tourism and will be continuing to grow if we are not careful.

Q. Do we need new tourism planning from top to toe?

A. Tourism is not a rocket science, there are plenty examples of good and bad things that we can learn from it across the world of tourism. I hope that many of you will agree, we need to have a sensible and sustainable tourism for the next 10 + years and stay clear from immediate but long term damaging solutions which inevitably will hit the industry hard in the future.

If we do not look after our island and learn from similar mistakes that other countries made in the past, it will certainly be too late to go back. What made North Cyprus very special is changing shape and disappearing every day, once that is changed completely we will find market conditions even harder and once thriving tourism industry will struggle enormously.