CYPRUS has been drawn into the Iran conflict – which has had a knock on effect on holidays.
The European country was hit by an Iranian drone earlier this month, after landing on RAF Akrotiri base on the island.
This led to a temporary closure of the airport, cancelled flights and a number of British schools.
Despite this, Cyprus remains on the safe to travel list, with no further escalations and flights back to normal.
The only warning on the UK Foreign Office website is in regards to “regional escalation poses […] has led to travel disruption.”
However Cyprus is seeing a drop in tourism, after it became the only European country affected by the conflict.
Local business owner Vassilis Georgiou told the Guardian that people are “thinking twice” about visiting.
He explained: “It may be early days but I’ve been here since 1992 and suddenly hoteliers are saying bookings are down.”
Nick Aristou, who owns three hotels in Cyprus, said they’d had around 200 cancellations this month.
He told the i: “Most of the cancellations, I would say about 90 per cent, are all for March, about 10 per cent for April.”
And Thanos Hotels’ Panos Kyprianou, with four hotels on the island, said cancellations were coming from Brits with 65 cancellations for April.
Hr added: “Right now, April, is about 10 per cent behind what it was last year.”
But Agia Napa Municipal Sectary Mr Fotos Kikillos said while they were “hearing of cancellations” he reaffirmed that life was still “very safe” on the island.
He added: “People are enjoying themselves – there’s no sense of fear. The last thing we want in Cyprus is to be dragged into this war.”
With the tourist season officially starting in the beginning of April, it is expected that everything will be back to normal on the island, despite fears of summer cancellations.
Last week, Cyprus’ foreign minster Constantinos Kombos told the BBC: “I don’t think that anyone should be in two minds, given the fact that the situation, as I have been describing right now as we speak, has been perfectly normal.
“All activity is normal. Air traffic is going back to 100 per cent what it was before the incident.
“So I don’t think this is something that should be affecting people’s decisions.”
“After all, this is part of the regional situation. It’s not the Republic of Cyprus that has been targeted. It has been the British bases.
“And the security factor in terms of people feeling that everything is being done that is humanly possible to protect both citizens, residents, and visitors to Cyprus. The security apparatus is in place to try to do exactly that.”
Cyprus is one of the more affordable areas of Europe to visit, especially now.
According to Cirium, there are around 125 scheduled flights from the UK to Cyprus over the Easter holidays, working out to 25,000 passengers.
If you were to travel there next month, seven-night holiday packages can be found for as little as £169 each.
Even two-week holidays can be found for under £300 each.
Ryanair currently has flights to Cyprus for around £25 each way next month too.
