Tui denies ending day trips to north

Tour operator Tui on Friday denied reports that it had struck a deal with the Republic of Cyprus to stop providing day trips for its holidaymakers in Cyprus to the north.

In a statement to the Cyprus Mail, Tui confirmed that the reported email sent by the company’s operations team manager in Cyprus to its local partners indicating that it would no longer promote or sell excursions to the north was authentic, but that it “does not reflect” the company’s position on the matter.

“Quotes by a local employee regarding our excursion offer in northern Cyprus which were published in media reports in recent days do not reflect the position of Tui Cyprus in content and form,” they said.

They added, “as a truly global company, Tui is always advocating for exchange and collaboration as the base for mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence”.

Additionally, they said, “the employee in question has been warned to not make unapproved statements which misrepresent the company’s position.”

“Of course guests are able to freely choose whatever excursions and activities they want to engage in while on holiday in Cyprus. Countless excursion packages that include northern Cyprus are available to choose from,” they said.

The government could not immediately provide comment over the matter, but earlier in the day, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis had said Cyprus did not ask Tui to scrap its excursions to the north.

He had added that “the government’s longstanding policy” is that it does not wish to see tourists going on trips to or staying in the north.

A screenshot of the email had been published in newspaper Kibris on Tuesday, with its text reading that “Tui has come to an agreement with [the] Cyprus government to stop promoting and selling excursions to [the] northern occupied side of Cyprus. This applies to all languages and all excursions where we currently cross the border to the north.”

The report caused anger among Turkish Cypriot stakeholders, with Turkish Cypriot restauranteurs’ association (Res-Bir) board member Cemal Gulercan describing it as  “malicious”.

“What is needed on this island is goodwill and peace, not tension,” he added.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had also expressed his fury at the reports, saying, “the Greek Cypriot leadership has this time placed our tourism sector at the centre of its ‘blockade policy’ aimed at collapsing our economy.”

He added that the Republic is “blackmailing” tour operators, and that “this situation once again reveals the true intentions of the Greek Cypriot leader [Nikos Christodoulides] and therefore the Greek Cypriot administration regarding Cyprus’ future.”

“What we need most on the island of Cyprus today is the establishment of cooperation between the two sides. I call on the Greek Cypriot leader to abandon this primitive policy and take steps towards the establishment of a new cooperation moving forwards.”

Cyprus’ government’s policy had been to skirt around the issue in the ensuing days, with Deputy Tourism Minister Costas Koumis saying “we work with a large number of organisations, but I do not think it is right to make statements about an agreement which concerns two parties” when asked about the reports on Wednesday.

He had later said that “we never choose to make any information public”.

At the same time, the Turkish Cypriot and Turkish press was awash with rumours of potential ramifications for Tui in Turkey.

A total of 2.2 million people travelled on holiday to Turkey with Tui in 2023 – a number which is said to account for up to one in five Tui customers worldwide.

It had been suggested that the Turkish government may now react to the use of the word “occupied” in the reported email, as well as to the ending of the excursions’ operation.

The north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel then visited the Ledras Street crossing point on Thursday, urging the “world and the European Union to recognise right from wrong” on the matter.

He criticised the “Greek Cypriot mentality,” accusing Greek Cypriots of “trying to create a rift between Cyprus’ two communities.”