Tourist arrivals are falling — touts are getting bolder: Ayia Napa complains about chasing customers

The decline in the number of holidaymakers in Ayia Napa has led to a sharp rise in aggressive marketing by local entertainment venues and restaurants. The city’s mayor, Christos Zannettou, speaking on the television program «Mesimeri kai Kati», acknowledged that intrusive touting of customers on streets and beaches has become a serious problem for the resort this season. The situation has worsened amid the broader crisis in Cyprus’s tourism industry: in the first five months of 2026, tourist arrivals on the island fell by 13.3% due to the military escalation in the Middle East region.

The essence of the problem and the methods of touts:
According to the mayor, business owners are going beyond the bounds of acceptable service:
— A pressure tactic. If a standard greeting to guests at the restaurant door is normal, then intercepting passersby on sidewalks and public beaches is considered a serious violation. Potential customers are persistently pushed toward specific bars, with promises of free alcohol and discounts during «happy hours».
— Consequences for the resort. Christos Zannettou stressed that such practices deprive tourists of the chance to relax comfortably, create excessive street noise, encourage unfair competition and, in the long run, damage the reputation of the businesses themselves, leading to the closure of venues.

Expansion of the violation zone and the legislative dead end:
A representative of the Famagusta entertainment center association, Pambos Alexandrou, noted that the illegal interception of customers has long gone far beyond the food service sector. Touts have begun forcibly «guiding» streams of people into certain commercial shops, souvenir stores and service businesses. At the same time, Alexandrou emphasized that Cypriot law has long contained strict penalties for such actions — including heavy fines and imprisonment — but enforcement in practice is effectively absent on the ground.

Ways to solve the problem:
At the moment, the municipality of Ayia Napa has no immediate means of influence — work is being carried out after the fact, based on the rare official complaints from citizens, within the framework of out-of-court settlement. Mayor Zannettou sees the solution in developing a new, stricter control regulation. For their part, the leadership of the relevant association insists that there is no need to invent new rules — municipal authorities and the police simply need to start applying the existing legal framework in a real and strict manner.