According to the Paphos Hotels Association, in July the city’s hotels were filled by about 11%.

In August, about 60 hotels opened in the Paphos region, said the president of the Association, Tano Michaelides. He explained that despite the difficult conditions, the hotels have decided to open and are doing everything possible to keep their staff.

But if there are few tourists, the hotels will have to close in September and October, he added.

Hoteliers hope August will bring more visitors than it did in July, as August 15 marks the start of the holiday season and is expected to bring in both local and foreign tourists. Although, according to Michaelides, at the moment the number of bookings is lower than in previous years.

Paphos hotels are very counting on tourists from Britain, but this year the number of British guests is still too small.

“Hotel owners must change their way of working if they want to keep their business afloat in 2021,” the head of the association told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) on Thursday and “next year will still be difficult for hoteliers,” he added.

“The pandemic has played a role in some ways as a catalyst for some market trends that have started to emerge,” said Michaelides. “We must all review our methods of work and become more modern”.

Small changes are already taking place, for example, in the past hotels were heavily dependent on travel agencies, which booked blocks for groups of tourists. However, the crisis has forced the Cypriot tourism industry to refocus on individual tourists.