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The omens from the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland are good, Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios told KYPE, noting that these countries are among the markets that are expected to significantly strengthen the Cypriot tourism industry this year, offsetting some of Russia's losses. Ukraine.
Mr. Perdios made an extraordinary trip to Sweden and then went on a planned trip to Switzerland, for meetings and contacts with tourist agencies.
In statements to KYPE from Switzerland, Mr. Perdios said that the five markets, namely Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland and Switzerland were anyway among the goals of the national strategy for tourism, but also qualified as compensation for part of the lost ground due to the loss of the markets of Russia and Ukraine.
“It seems that from the Nordic countries and Switzerland the omens are very good for this year. “It is in the markets that will strengthen us significantly compared to last year”, said Mr. Perdios.
This means, he added, “that both the demand and the program of the travel organizers are much increased compared to last year, at levels that approach the levels of 2019 and under certain conditions may exceed 2019”.
According to Mr. Perdios, the conditions are related to the discussions that the State Department is holding with the organizers for the implementation of emergency advertising, as well as to the fact that some other destinations such as Croatia and Bulgaria seem to have a significant drop in demand due to proximity to the war zone. “
” Some windows have been opened for us through travel organizers, who are considering some adjustment of their programs with these countries and Cyprus is one of the destinations that may be able to attract additional tourist traffic “, reported.
Saying that in Sweden last week Cyprus was the No. 1 in bookings from all destinations, Mr. Perdios added that “these also reinforce some of our own measurements which say that in relation to the first 2 weeks of the war the searches on the internet was slightly reduced this has now been reversed and from all our markets, except Russia and Ukraine, there is again an increase in searches for Cyprus “.
“This is very important because the escalation in Ukraine and the rise in prices for goods and fares do not seem to be the primary factor in whether one will go on holiday. “The primary factor for the trip is that people have been locked up at home for the last 2 years due to the pandemic,” he said. the corresponding flights of 2019.
As he said, for example Finnair has put flights from Helsinki, while the last time this company had flights with Cyprus was 5 years ago. He added that Norwegian has direct flights from all the capitals of the Nordic countries to Cyprus.
At the same time, as he said, Eurowings has direct flights from Stockholm to Cyprus for the first time, while for the first time, we also have chartered flights from Bern, Switzerland. According to Mr. Perdios, these flights will be operated between two and three times a week, depending on the company.
Asked what are the first signs for the summer, Mr. Perdios said that the signs are the ones we mentioned a few weeks ago. “Despite the difficulty with the Ukrainian crisis, it is possible to have numbers like 2021. This is what things are showing at the moment. “We are talking about a season at least at the level of 2021”, he stressed.
After his return to Cyprus, Mr. Perdios is expected to visit Britain, France and Poland.
< p> Source: KYPE
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