Party-Hard Tourists Overtaking Cypriot Town

V I E N N A, Austria, Aug. 18 -- A British tourist has been convicted and fined $120 for “deliberately flaunting his genitals” by a court in Ayia Napa, the “rave resort” in Cyprus.

Londoner Danny Chapman, 20, was arrested at 4:15 a.m. earlier this week after streaking down the night club and bar strip on Tefkrou Anthia Street.

He appeared contrite in court on charges of indecent exposure and disturbing the peace. He had “learned his lesson,” he said.

But stories like Chapman’s are becoming the norm in Cyprus. He is the latest in a stream of tourists, mainly British, to be hauled before the Famagusta District and other Cyprus courts on charges of indecency, theft and drug abuse.

A British tourist was stabbed to death nearby in June. Another died after taking five ecstasy tablets.

Cyprus police are coy about exact figures, especially on skyrocketing drug abuse, but they do admit that traffic offenses are up 100 percent and nuisance complaints (mainly about loud music) are up 31 percent from last year. All illicit drug possession and use is strictly illegal in Cyprus. So, too, is homosexuality.

The New Sodom and Gomorrah

Cyprus officials are seriously worried about the region’s image. In an article supported by very specific photographs of tourist sex, alcohol and drug-related misbehavior, the leading newspaper Politis has dubbed the Ayia Napa resort “the new Sodom and Gomorrah.“

There are currently 20,000 tourists, average age 20, in Ayia Napa, looking for the next rave. Having sex in public is such a common occurrence that few, especially not the overstrained police force, seem to take much notice of it.

The European “rave scene” has switched to Ayia Napa after wearing out its welcome in Mallorca and Ibiza, which were the rave centers of the past few years.

Compact discs have been issued in Britain and Germany with specific “Ayia Napa” or “Nissi Beach” music to fuel the rave scene, notorious for its drug use and the immense quantity of litter and urine stains it leaves in its wake. Nissi Beach at Ayia Napa is one of the best in Cyprus, but no longer a place where families want to go.