Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
revenues, there is also awareness that this trend
would have significant negative impact on the
environment. The government in the north has
enacted two development ordinances in 2004,
one for the Karpas peninsula and the other for
the Tatlisu area, in order to minimize the damage
to environmentally sensitive areas which are
habitats for turtles, historical and cultural heri-
tage sites, dunes, forests and maquis landscapes
under pressure from tourism development. The
main aim of these development ordinances is to
take precautionary measures and prohibit deve-
lopment in special protection areas (SPAs) until
a comprehensive development plan for these
areas can be prepared, approved and enforced
under the planning legislation. However, it is
unclear whether these ordinances will be effec-
tive in controlling haphazard development and
securing environmentally sound and culturally
aware sustainable development, given the
economic pressures for development and the
problems of enforcement.
failure to secure a settlement has sparked off a
frenzy of unplanned development and specula-
tion, driven by the expectations of the Annan
Plan and the apparent opportunity to second-
guess the conditions of a future agreement,
which will no doubt cause long-term damage
both to the environment and to the quality of
bi-communal relations.
There is no immediate prospect of a solu-
tion at the official level to the political problems
that are inseparable from the very ingredients
of tourism in Cyprus. The political landscape is
constantly shifting, in response both to initia-
tives from the political centre of Brussels, and to
new developments in the periphery, particularly
in relation to the process of Turkey's accession
to the European Union. The question of how
strategic alliances are made in these conditions
of uncertainty, who is able to make them, and
what benefits they bring, will be critical in shap-
ing the contours of Cyprus' emerging tourism
landscape.
Notes
Conclusion and Future Prospects
1
In 1999 and 2000, Northern Cyprus received
414,000 and 433,000 tourists respectively, of
which 334,400 and 347,700 were from Turkey. In
the same years, arrivals to the south numbered
2.4 million and 2.6 million respectively.
The current state of tourism in the Cyprus of the
new, enlarged Europe presents a complex and
contradictory picture. Despite the lack of a poli-
tical settlement, there are signs that Cyprus is
moving towards a single tourism economy, as
business interests find common cause across the
Green Line, and, to a limited extent, recruit from
a common labour market. At the same time, the
restructuring of the tourism industry - as the
north scales up for an element of mass tourism,
and the south seeks to reposition its product in
the face of declining numbers and per capita
spend - is creating new winners and losers, con-
tributing to a sense of insecurity amongst some
tourism stakeholders, exacerbating the political
tensions surrounding tourism development on
the island.
On one level, the continued separation of
the two parts of the island and the maintenance
of 'no-go areas' of various types could be viewed
as forcing the creation of relationships to negoti-
ate the divide and assuring a role for both Greek
and Turkish Cypriot actors as gatekeepers to
'their' part of the island. On the other hand, the
2
www.cyprus.gov.cy.
Recent reports suggest that
the decline in foreign tourist arrivals isbeing
offset to some extent by an increase in domestic
tourism (see Christou, 2005).
3
German tourists made up 10% of total arrivals in
1998, declining to 6% in 2003 (Statistical Service
of the Government of Cyprus).
4
In Southern Cyprus the issue of casinos has
long been a matter of debate. Despite a vocifer-
ous lobby in favour, pressures to allow casinos
to operate have so far been opposed and
resisted, both out of traditional moral concerns,
and also on cultural and political grounds
(Sunday Mail, 17 September, 2000). However,
this policy isbeing reconsidered, inview of the
steady stream of Greek Cypriots who, since the
relaxation of border restrictions between north
and south in April 2003, have been heading
northwards to gamble in the casinos (Cyprus
Mail, 23 June, 2004).
5
'Direk uçu
t
ta kararliyiz ama' Londra Gazete
3/2/05. The then European Minister of the UK
