“We are in the middle of a tourist season and we see some positive trends and reversals taking place after quite a few years but we are not resting,” said Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) chairman Angelos Loizou.

Loizou, who sat in a board meeting of the Cyprus Hotel Association (PASYXE) said big emphasis was put on traditional markets like the UK and Germany and positive trends were seen at least for the six months starting on 1st November 2015.

One of the CTO’s main objectives was to extend the winter tourist period. “If we take 2015 alone it also looks like it’s on the right path,” Loizou said.

He said there were new markets for Cyprus like France, Poland, and neighbouring Israel and other Arabic countries.

Loizou said efforts were underway to reduce the loss from the Russian market, which was affected by the crisis in Ukraine. Tourism authorities are trying to keep the loss at 25% but it could be lower at the end of the day.

“We heard our partners the hoteliers telling us that reservations are somewhat better, so the rate may be even lower,” Loizou said.

PASYXE chairman Haris Loizides said they discussed the CTO’s long-term strategy in light of the effort to rebrand Cyprus.

“We hope that through this dialogue we will arrive at common ways to tackle the issues because at the end of the day it was a common objective,” Loizides said.

Source: Cyprus Mail