Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou on Tuesday demanded that the government take action to save the island’s tourism industry amid an ongoing conflict in the Middle East and reports of declining bookings after the island was hit by an Iranian-made drone at the beginning of the month.

Speaking during a visit to Paphos, he said that “the first thing that needs to be done is to ensure the connectivity of Cyprus through various actions”, expanding, or at the very least maintaining, the number of destinations which can be reached from Cyprus by air.

“Without flights, without connectivity, it is very difficult to maintain tourism,” he said.

He then turned his attention to issues faced by seasonal workers, who in some cases had expected to have returned to work by now, but have not yet done so as hotels and other tourism-dependent businesses delay their summer openings in light of the reduction of bookings.

“Since hotels have not opened, it means that there is an employment issues for workers in the sector. There is experience, there are ways, so that with the support of workers, we can maintain the working capital in this very critical and sensitive and important sector,” he said.

He added that “the big question mark” over the island’s economy at present is “how tourism will move in the coming months”.

“We should, beyond connectivity, see as a country how we can organise an effective and targeted campaign abroad to promote what the reality is,” he said, before adding that the reality is that “Cyprus is a safe destination, and … certainly, Cyprus can accept waves of tourists, and tourists can come here to spend their holidays without any problems”.

Additionally, he said, the government should “see how we can help domestic tourism” and attract people who live in Cyprus to holiday on the island.

“Every time tourism has a problem, we also remember domestic tourism. There should be stable programmes to support domestic tourism,” he said, pointing at the forthcoming Easter weekend as an opportunity to “support domestic tourism”.

His comments come with the government keen to stress that the island is a safe tourism destination, with Finance Minister Makis Keravnos on Saturday the latest to stress that “we look forward to welcoming our tourists and visitors to a safe, European Cyprus”.

Prior to that, President Nikos Christodoulides had told Greek business news website money-tourism.gr that the island “remains a stable European pillar in a geographical area of particular geopolitical importance”, and that it is a “completely safe” destination for tourists.

On the matter of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, he stressed that Cyprus is “not part of the region’s problems, but on the contrary, functions as a pillar of stability and cooperation”.