It said that deputy tourism minister Savvas Perdios will present the national tourism strategy next month, setting out the specific timelines and actions to be taken in the next decade.

The strategy will include proposals made by Spanish consultants and tourism stakeholders.

Cyprus wants to develop special interest tourism, with emphasis also going to mountain and rural areas, health tourism, wellness tourism and tourists with mobility issues, it said.

Pensioners and third age individuals more generally will be at the focus of the strategy.

More specfically,  the strategy will target tourists over 65 who are reltively high income and can remain abroad for several weeks in winter.

The most suitable markets are the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

The deputy ministry has looked at the demographics in Europe as well as purchasing power of  various nationalities. Studies have also focused on various forms of special interest tourism that can help deal with seasonality.

The deputy ministry’s budget includes a provision for 600,000 euro to cover the action plans of the tourism strategy, a strategic study on the environmental impact, data collection on existing and new forms of tourism and the collection and analysis of data on  tourists’ sasitsfaction with specialised forms of tourism.

Source: In-Cyprus