HOTEL DISCOUNTS, WITH SUBSIDIES, TO CONTINUE THROUGH MARCH 31

 Cyprus Mail 9 November 2020 - by Andrew Rosenbaum

The Council of Ministers has agreed to the request from the tourism ministry to continue its mandate of special offers of hotel discounts to permanent residents, the Deputy Minister of Tourism said in a press release on Monday.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Cyprus has the potential to emerge as a first-class winter tourist destination due to its remarkable mountain regions and rural authenticity, Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios has said.

More than 100 hotels across the island participate in the scheme, which was originally intended to be active from 1 September through the end of November. The scheme includes apartment complexes, tourist villages and agro-tourism establishments.

 

Tourist accommodations can participate in the the “Extraordinary Plan for the Support of Domestic Tourism,” which allows tourist accommodations to offer a maximum price of €60 (including VAT) for a double room, with breakfast, per day, with a minimum stay of two nights.

The government provides a subsidy of 35 per cent of the accommodation costs.

The scheme has been welcomed by hundreds of locals, according to the Cyprus Hotel Association. Thanks to the discount, and the government subsidy for these stays, the result has been to bring more permanent residents as tourists to parts of the island they have not yet visited.

Hotels participating in the scheme are only permitted to offer breakfast to their guests, meaning that the tourists must buy their lunch, dinner and snacks at other restaurants and stores.

The regions taking part are Famagusta, Larnaca and its mountain areas, Limassol and its mountain areas, Nicosia, the Troodos, the Kato Pyrgos area, and Paphos.

The Deputy Ministry of Tourism is committed to building up Cyprus tourism in the winter. There are plans to improve facilities throughout the mountain regions for this purpose. An “authentic experience” will also be set up in a mountain region.

[It is expected that lists of participating hotels per area will be posted in due course - details follow.  They are likely to appear on  https://www.visitcyprus.com/index.php/en]