Tourism Booming

[EnjoyingTheSun]

According to Cyprus Today, tourism is booming.

[alphamike]

Hmmm, must be those coming from Turkey for gambling. I don't buy CT so can't read the article.

[EnjoyingTheSun]

Hmmm, must be those coming from Turkey for gambling. I don't buy CT so can't read the article.

This is the telling part of the article for me
4,430,727 overnight stays divided by the guest numbers of 1,477,174 is almost exactly 3. So I read that as the average length of stay.
Rather neatly matches a weekend casino trip from the mainland.
But I’m sure those ‘tourists’ visit the local restaurants and small businesses and even if they don’t the casinos are paying a fortune in tax!
A problem with these articles is they end up giving you a random couple of numbers that they don’t realise will make you realise “yeah but hold on….

[benjaminbutton]

I have a great time, reading the nonsense head lines in C.T. Most of the tourists DON'T visit local bars and restaurants. Why should they when they are on an all inclusive stay. PLUS they gamble way into the night, sleep during the day or laze around in the spas, If someone wants to correct me please do, but years back I was told that everytime someone from down south walk across the border for a few hours over here, they would counted as a tourists. Same goes for the buses that park on the large carpark in Girne. Wander down to the harbour, buy some lunch, pick up a couple of nick nacks and then wander back to bus. THEY ARE TOURISTS AND COUNTED AS SUCH.

[EnjoyingTheSun]

I have a great time, reading the nonsense head lines in C.T. Most of the tourists DON'T visit local bars and restaurants. Why should they when they are on an all inclusive stay. PLUS they gamble way into the night, sleep during the day or laze around in the spas, If someone wants to correct me please do, but years back I was told that everytime someone from down south walk across the border for a few hours over here, they would counted as a tourists. Same goes for the buses that park on the large carpark in Girne. Wander down to the harbour, buy some lunch, pick up a couple of nick nacks and then wander back to bus. THEY ARE TOURISTS AND COUNTED AS SUCH.

I was being ironic when I said I’m sure they visit local restaurants and bars. As you pointed out, why would they?
As for the hotel/casinos they hire very few Turkish Cypriots as a proportion of their staff and import much of what they need such as food directly from mainland Turkey.

As for the day trippers crossing the border from the South I don’t even think it goes as far as popping over for lunch and buying nick nacks. I remember when I first moved over here asking a cab driver in the South whether he crossed the border. He said several times a week to fill up his car with the cheaper petrol and buy the cheaper cigarettes. So the government is subsidising the Greek Cypriots to help bolster the figures

I think if the government stripped out the weekend gamblers and day trippers who contribute very very little to the local economy the figures would be far more accurate. But I would hope the constant closing of local bars, restaurants and small businesses will give even the most naive pause to question how booming the tourism industry really is.

[EnjoyingTheSun]

So as it seems more and more likely that TRNC’s tax revenues will come from the casinos it is important that they pay a fair share.

This is a bit of a long read but hopefully some will find it interesting.

We had a recent change in the tax laws because “the northern government argues that it can’t determine casino revenue in any way other than from figures provided by the casinos.”
Now this is true to a point but extremely solveable.
Yes casinos will try to avoid paying tax on the casino win but in the U.K. they will do it by trying to offset costs such as incentives and comps to the players against that win.
Figure wise it’s all pretty transparent and it’s then up to the authorities as to what they allow as reasonable and the method used to offset the tax.
What casinos will struggle to do is to fiddle the actual figures for the simple reason it’s very easy to see what the win is and any attempts to cloud those figures open the casino owners up to their biggest fear. Theft from staff either on their own or by collusion with customers.
So yes they can get creative but only to a point as if they make it an impossible number salad how will the owners ever know that their management team aren’t skimming a massive proportion of their profits.
As I said calculating a casino win isn’t rocket science, it’s a simple matter of counting what chips were on a table at the start of the day and what chips plus cash is on the table at the end of a day. If there is less chips plus cash on the table at the end of the day than the start the table/s have lost if there’s more they have won. Slot machines are even easier to calculate.
In the Bahamas, another island who relies heavily on casino taxes to survive they have the gaming board actually on site in all the casinos. They have their own office in the casino, right by the cash desk.
They know what cash is down the drop boxes because they watch the count. They aren’t taking any chances because that tax money is vital to their economy.

Now you might ask will the casinos stand for it? Well they will if it is part of them having a licence. If they don’t want to play you can be assured that other operators will be very happy to step in and take over because the tax rates will still be lower than other countries they operate in.

It is vital to sort this out as soon as possible because I don’t think the casinos will be booming for much longer.

They are very much tied to the Turkish economy as that is where the bulk of their customers come from. So should the Turkish economy hit the buffers then that can only reduce the number of their customers and their spend.
They have taken the sensible route of trying to diversify and attract customers from overseas, particularly the Middle Eastern market in recent years.
Unfortunately in just over a year there is a great white shark looming. When the Wynn Al Marjan Island opens in the UAE that will be a game changer and I fully expect them to hoover up the bulk of the Middle Eastern customers.
That will leave the casinos out here betting solely on the strength of the Turkish economy.

[EnjoyingTheSun]

I forgot to attach the article I referred to

https://ggbmagazine.com/articles/tax-ch ... -in-north/

[Hair Cut]

Tourism Booming !!!! There is a greater chance of Putin giving in to Ukraine.