By Bejay Browne.
The Paphos regional board of tourism is continuing to strengthen the promotion of the area and has prepared an enhanced action plan with a budget of over €480,000, officials said.
“Sixty five per cent of the budget for 2021 will be allocated for the enhancement of the tourist experience and in new technologies,” head of the Paphos regional board of tourism Nasos Hadjigeorgiou told the Paphos Post.
The remaining 35 per cent will be invested in targeted promotions, mainly advertising the destination both at home and overseas, he added.
The aim of the action plan and product development for 2021, which also incorporates the efforts of local agencies, entrepreneurs and the ministry of tourism, is to ensure the leading position of Cyprus, and in particular the Paphos district in the field of tourism, he said.
“We hope that in the coming months the pandemic will be ended by finding the vaccine against coronavirus so that 2021 will be a year marking the beginning of recovery for tourism in Cyprus, with the aim of returning to the growth rates we experienced before the pandemic.”
However, the tourism chief warned that even if recovery of the sector begins next year, it will take at least three to four years to see similar numbers of visitors to the island as experienced in 2019.
Nevertheless, Paphos continues to focus on its goals which are the upgrade of the experience, the expansion of air connections and the operation of the destination on a year-round basis.
“We are staying positive that the season can commence in March 2021 and everyone is on standby mode. There is a desire from travellers, tour operators, airline and all of the stakeholders to resume the holiday business if a vaccine is ready.”
He added that the spending per head of guests holidaying in Cyprus is expected to be lower, as can be seen in Europe and other source markets.
In addition, domestic tourism is considered vitally important, as over 600,000 residents of Cyprus that usually fly to Greece for holidays remained on the island this year and ‘rediscovered Cyprus’, he said.
“In July and August and some weekends, people explored several areas and Paphos was one of the most popular for domestic tourism,” he said.
