Wedding parties back on schedule in April

Wedding celebrations will be allowed from April after the Cyprus Association of Event Organisers announced they would be gradually returning to business following the lockdown to stop the second wave of COVID-19.

In comments to Philenews, President of the association, Constantinos Mosaikos sent told couples planning to get married in 2021 to stay tuned.

He is in constant contact with the Health Ministry to facilitate events in the near future.

Mosaikos said the sector employs some 10,000 professionals from catering services, decorators, photographers, DJs to wedding gown shops, has not been able to function for 12 months.

He argued if the sector is not allowed to reopen soon, hundreds will be out of business for good.

“The events industry has always had, before the catastrophic pandemic, a dynamic from March to November with a turnover close to EUR 500 mln.

“But now, with revenues continuing to drop, we do not know how many professionals will survive,” said Mosaikos.

In January, the association said the industry had lost EUR 350 mln revenues after 13,000 couples forced to cancel or postpone their wedding.

According to Mosaikos, guidelines on how the sector will reopen was agreed with the Health Ministry.

Referring to the timeframe, from the first two weeks of April, weddings can have 75 people invited for dinner in an indoor area and 150 outdoors.

As of 16 April, couples can seat 100 guests indoors and another 200 outdoors till the end of that month.

In May, the number goes up to 350 for a dinner party, regardless of guests seated indoors or outdoors, and cocktail reception with not more than 250 people at any given time.

In June, wedding parties can have up to 500 guests and cocktail reception with no more than 350 at a time, while all restrictions are lifted in July.

Couples will need to keep a record of all guests for two months in case there is a need for track and tracing while traditional handshakes and kissing at the reception are banned.

Until all measures are lifted, no more than 10 people can be seated at a single table, while chairs at tables have to be at least 0.70 metres apart.

Although Cyprus hotel occupancy dipped below the regional average at 56%, the price of a room went the other way climbing 42% last year during the pandemic, according to STR hospitality data analytics.

In 2020, Cyprus hotels performed like the rest of the Mediterranean region - except when it came to average daily rate (ADR).

According to STR, from April through December, Cyprus’ occupancy fell 56.1%, which was slightly worse than the average decrease (-45.0%) in other markets across the region.

Nearly every market has experienced significantly lower occupancy due to travel restrictions during the pandemic.

For Cyprus, the bottom came in December, with occupancy at just 20.7%. By comparison, the Mediterranean region bottomed out at 32.3% in December.

Where Cyprus performed better was in ADR which surged 42.3% during the ninemonth period April to December.

ADR climbed to an all-time high of $278.97 in December compared to the rest of the region’s modest $116.18.

This is partly due to Cyprus having the highest percentage of independent supply compared with the rest of the region.

More than 85% of the hotels on the island are independents, leaving only 14.7% as chain-affiliated.

This concentration of independent hotels is than other countries such as 60% in Spain, 41% in the UK and approximately 78% for all other Mediterranean markets.

Furthermore, global brands account for less than 3% of total supply in Cyprus.

Another potential reason underlying the ADR increase in the COVID-era is the hotel mix in Cyprus is geared toward the upper end of the chain scale.

While most of the markets across the Mediterranean region offer ample lower-cost travel options, the Cyprus hotel market has a noticeable void – only 11.8% of hotel supply is economy or midscale, compared to 35.5% of supply in the region steering toward the lower end.

Less supply of midscale and economy options means that the ADR is skewed toward higher-end hotels.

While hotel supply has decreased, the island was still attracting record tourist arrivals before COVID-19.

From December 2010 through December 2020, Cyprus’ hotel supply decreased slightly (-3.3%), while supply for other markets across the Mediterranean increased 1.3% overall.