Assessment of the Hotel and Catering Institute Services (HCI). Audit analysis and recommendation for future technical status
The client is the Ministry of Labour & Social Insurance of the Republic of Cyprus.

Quantitative and qualitative research was conducted among a representative audience sample of students, tutors and graduates of the Institute. We reviewed the Government’s strategic Plan for Tourism Development and discussed various issues with The Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation and the Human Resource Development Authority, Hotel Associations, major Hotels, Travel Agents and other related professions.

We identified that in addition to the need for post-graduate upgraded professional training, the HCI should play a role of research and development of traditional catering dishes, their dietary impact, its artistic presentation and its introduction to catering outlets.

This would be in line with the objectives of the 10-year Strategic Plan for Tourism; to fulfil these objectives, the HCI should be upgraded to a technical university level. The government has approved and signed off the strategy.

A new warehouse concept for Cyprus
The client was interested to assess the viability of a new concept for the regional market and for Cyprus, the creation of a warehouse complex made of flexible space partitioning to address:

• commercial requirements of a temporary and seasonal nature (e.g. Christmas shopping stocks etc)
• private users who need space for warehousing household items of non-frequent use

We identified that the basic bottom line would depend on the frequency of rotation of users and the extent of occupancy. We carried out a comparative analysis of rental costs with other competing warehousing propositions available and defined the parameters of the project (optimum size of the warehouse, minimum size of warehouse units, price per m2 etc). A quantitative survey was then carried out in various pre-selected areas and we readjusted the strategy in the light of the findings.

We concluded that, although the project was interesting, the commercial and trade risks were such that the viability of the investment could be in jeopardy. The client decided to shelve the project, avoiding risky adventures.

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