The mood in Ayia Napa, out of season but in the news, is bleak. The few tourists in town seem to have largely come from sub-zero winter temperatures in Russia and eastern Europe and are impervious to the unrelenting grey drizzle, or the fact that very little is open for business. But calls last week to boycott the resort over the case of a British teenager who accused 12 Israeli men of raping her in July last year has shaken locals. They rely heavily on holiday trade to survive the cooler months when the town shuts down and empties.
“Ayia Napa is already suffering: we are going down since the last four years,” says Lena, a receptionist at one of the few family-friendly hotels in a town synonymous with “adults-only” establishments aimed at young, drunken holidaymakers who stay up all night and sleep all day. “Boycotting does not make sense because of one problem. There is one problem and everyone is judged.”
Lena alludes only to “the problem”, but the case of the teenager and her rape accusation has dominated headlines here as in Britain. Locals are defensive, and the mayor, Yiannis Karousos, has threatened to sue the teenager for defamation and blocked any criticism of his town on Twitter.
The British woman, who was 18 at the time of the incident, was treated in hospital for serious injuries consistent with rape. Two weeks later, in an eight-hour police interview conducted without a lawyer and not recorded, she signed a statement retracting her claims.
The Israeli men, aged between 15 and 22, were released and sent home, reportedly popping champagne at Tel Aviv airport and chanting “the Brit is a whore”. Their accuser, who has been diagnosed with PTSD and a sleeping disorder, was charged with “public mischief” and spent a month in prison and six more detained in safe houses on the island. Following her conviction last week, she will be sentenced in the coming days. She is appealing against the conviction, and her mother has urged a boycott of Ayia Napa, warning that the resort is “absolutely unsafe”.
On an empty street between a Flintstones-themed bar and a strip club covered in giant soft-porn hoardings, an Indian family visiting from Shimla say they agree. “I did not know it was like this,” says the mother in Hindi, gesturing towards a neon-lit parlour promising permanent tattoos (even though it’s temporarily closed). “We wouldn’t let our [teenage] son come here alone on holiday. It’s not because we don’t trust him, but the risk is too high for young people, boys or girls, when everything is made to encourage bad behaviour.”
Ayia Napa’s reputation as a party town was cemented in popular culture in the late 1990s by UK garage stars, but it has gone on to become a tabloid fixture for its disturbing excess of drink, violence and sexual assault. Pambos Napa Rocks, the hotel where the British teenager was staying, has a preponderance of one-star reviews on Trip Advisor where customers have written about their rooms being dirty and dangerous. Another British teenager wrote in June 2019 that she had been attacked while asleep in her bed: “I was woken up to a man on top of me who had broken into the room through the balcony door.”
Many of the locals I speak to are sensitive about how the case has portrayed their town. Everyone, they say, comes to Ayia Napa for sex. “People come to Ayia Napa to do what they can’t do at home,” says taxi driver Louka, who was born in the UK but has lived in Cyprus for 45 years. “This is the place to get anything you want.”
Ayia Napa is marketed as one of the top five destinations in the world for a “lads’ holiday” by travel companies including Lastminute.com and Loveholidays.com.
In the Nissi Bay area, which prides itself as one of the most Instagrammed beaches in the world, parasols and sun beds are stacked in a wind-beaten heap. Tereza Ottova, a 35-year-old digital marketer from Prague, says she is travelling alone and had originally booked a single night but extended it to three. “To be honest, I don’t feel any danger here,” she says. “I know in the summer it will be completely different, but they should do more to sell it as a place where there are hikes and skiing and beaches within an hour of each other. The party thing isn’t … great.”
Back in town, by the square, the shutters are down everywhere except McDonald’s, Hard Rock Cafe and Pizza Hut. An Indian worker who moved to Cyprus a few years ago insists it’s a great place “if you don’t do bullshit or ask for it”. He says he deals with plenty of drunks at his multiple restaurant jobs but insists he feels safe in Ayia Napa. “I don’t think the boycott will have an effect – young people will always want cheap holidays and party towns. The reason Ayia Napa has been less busy than it used to be is because it is getting more expensive and there is more competition now.”
