CYPRUS CHANGES PLANS FOR TOURISM 2021

  Filenews 11 November 2020 - by Eleutheria Paizanou

Covid-19, which dealt a heavy blow to tourism, forced the Ministry of Tourism to change its plans for 2021 and transfer its weight from activities related to travel and promotion abroad to other methods of promotion, upgrading the tourism product and developing special areas.

According to a note from the Ministry of Tourism, forwarded to parliament ahead of the debate on its 2021 budget, it will, among other things, enlist digital marketing. At the same time, it will take actions to upgrade the product offered and strengthen the specific forms of tourism, such as the incentive plans drawn up by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the Ministry of Finance. In addition, it will take action to develop areas which have not yet been developed as tourism, such as rural, mountain and acritic areas. Among other things, the role will be upgraded and the operation of the Troodos Development Company will be strengthened, as well as the allocation of additional funds for the upgrading of Chrysochous and Telecommunications Town. It will carry out a study on tourism development and promotion of Chrysochous Town, to record the relevant model forms of urban development in tourism.

In addition, a grant plan is expected to be implemented for projects to upgrade the services offered to leisure centres. It will also proceed with the creation of a 300 km thematic route, which will capture the authentic experience of the mountainous countryside and the acritic regions. A National Strategy for wine-gastronomy and eco-crafts with rural areas is also expected to be defined. At the same time, next year the State Department is betting on the development of domestic tourism, such as the emergency domestic tourism aid plan, which was listed until the end of March 2021. The project aims to boost domestic tourism for the benefit of the public, businesses and workers in the tourism industry. It is recalled that from January to September 2020 the number of tourist arrivals recorded a decrease of 84.3%. In particular, 512,184 tourists arrived on the island, compared with 3.2 million in 2014. in 2019. Over the same period, tourism revenues fell by 87.3%. €235.6m was entered into the state coffers, compared with €1.8m in 2014 last year.