‘Tolerance breeds impunity and leads to lawlessness’

Only a small fraction of hotels and tourist accommodation establishments are fully licensed, MPs heard on Tuesday, while unlicensed businesses continue to operate with impunity, confident that the state will simply grant them another extension.

At the House commerce committee, it emerged that just 14.5 per cent of these businesses hold the required permits and operate with a full licence.

In all, about 740 hotels and tourist accommodation establishments currently operate without a licence.

Permanent secretary at the deputy ministry for tourism Costas Constantinou told MPs that overall 227 applications have been submitted by these businesses following a revision of the relevant legislation last year.

Of these, 146 applications met the criteria and got approved for a licence, while the other 81 fell foul of the legislation.

The matter was discussed in parliament in light of a government bill as well as a legislative proposal, both of which intend to grant unlicenced businesses yet another extension to comply.

They would be given until July 2027 to get in line.

Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos expressed his strong disagreement with granting a new ‘grace period’. He pointed out that these establishments had already been given five years to set their affairs in order.

But most didn’t as they had “assurances” that the grace period would be extended.

“Tolerance breeds impunity and leads to lawlessness,” the mayor remarked.

Because of this disregard for the law, he added, hoteliers have taken to converting parking spaces into gyms or spas, or restaurants into extra rooms.

“These extensions [to compliance] amount to indulging lawlessness,” Phedonos said.

“We’re talking about extraordinary things, since we’ve got businesses with a turnover of €30 million or even €50 million and which have not bothered to get the proper permits.”

A representative of the fire department said they carry out inspections at hotels to determine compliance with the law but also to establish whether the premises meet the criteria for licences.

Speaking to the media later, committee chair Kyriacos Hadjiyianni (Disy) said the unregulated situation poses a variety of risks – fire hazards, drownings in hotel swimming pools, and vulnerability to earthquakes.

“Responsibility lies with the hotel owners but also with the state which looks the other way,” the MP said.

Granting more extensions would simply perpetuate the problem.

This state of affairs, he noted, has led to the creation of a two-tier system: whereas some hotels invest to comply with all the regulations, the rest don’t spend money on improvements and thus gain an unfair advantage.

Parliament will revisit the matter after the break for the Easter holiday.