Party-Hard Tourists Overtaking Cypriot Town
V I E N N A, Austria, Aug. 18, 2000 -- 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.
Mornings find it piled with empty cans and water-bottles, fast-food packaging, discarded items of underwear and used condoms. “It smells and looks like one massive garbage heap and public toilet, and the tides don’t come up high enough to clean it,” said one disgruntled Sri Lankan guest worker, employed on the town’s clean-up squad.
The swimming pools of the many hotels are empty until late afternoon as ravers sleep off hangovers.
Those hotels have seen a decline in bookings as families and richer tourists flee to other, more civilized parts of the island.
The youngsters mostly book self-catering apartments — not that they do much cooking. With all-day full breakfast — bacon, hash browns, eggs, sausages, baked beans, tomatoes and toast — on offer for under $5, why bother? Supermarkets sell local brewed vodka for as little as $8 a bottle and six-packs of beer far under the prices abroad.
Earning Their Keep Through Theft
What worries the Cypriots most, however, is the way an increasing number of youngsters finance their trip abroad. Many bring supplies of the rave drug Ecstasy with them and deal to cover the costs. With raves all over town on any night of the summer season, there’s a voracious market.
Two Swedish tourists were arrested this week and have been charged with stealing nine mobile phones, worth $2,500, from an Ayia Napa store. They tried to sell them to a dealer in the next town, Paralimni. He turned them in.
Cyprus authorities can only attempt to confine the damage to Ayia Napa, which is a no-go area for the hundreds of British troops and many of the international peacekeepers stationed on the island. (Cyprus has been divided into a Greek Cypriot official and a Turkish occupied zone since 1972.)
Ayia Napa is tucked away in the east of the island, well away from other mainstream resorts such as Limassol and Paphos. Cyprus authorities are cracking down on any attempt by the rave scene to spread away from the Ayia Napa area.
They also pounced this week on seven rave trippers from Nicosia — three Cypriots, two Yugoslavs and a Bulgarian — who turned up for a banned rave on Governor’s Beach, a quiet resort and favorite with British Air Force personnel at Akrotiri air base. They have been charged with drug possession.
Tour operators strenuously deny that they push Ayia Napa as a place where sex and drugs are freely available, but some Web sites make it quite clear why youngsters seeking “the ultimate night out” should be heading there.
Cyprus’ tourist authorities say that the resort is just giving the customer what it wants, though they admit that they could be shooting themselves in the foot. Official Cyprus policy is to boost the appeal to the wealthier tourist and to families seeking a quiet time.
Even the church is chipping in to defend the resort, named after the obscure Saint Napa. “I don’t think Ayia Napa is any different from any other town in the world. It’s not different from the behavior of Bill Clinton, or the boss who gropes his secretary in an ordinary office in an ordinary town,” says local Anglican vicar Robin Brookes.
ABCNEWS’ Merlin Koene contributed to this report.