Dora Christodoulou
The people of tourism in Paphos seem to have received for good the messages from the pandemic as to the steps that need to be taken to shield the main economic activity of the province from future unexpected situations. This is shown by their continuous and now targeted actions, in specific directions away from the simple increase of numbers.
Indicative of this new trend that prevails among the representatives of the tourist institutions of Paphos, is the statement of the president of PASYXE Paphos, Thanos Michailidis: The goals of the tourism industry are now to reduce seasonality, dependence on the markets of the United Kingdom and Russia , as well as attracting tourists of higher economic class.
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Speaking to “F”, Mr. Michailidis estimated that the achievement of these new goals shields for good the tourism industry regardless of unexpected problems such as the pandemic. In the near future, he stressed, the goal can not be other than to achieve in 2022 the smallest possible deviation from 2019 in terms of visitor arrivals.
“In order to achieve this goal,” he said, “structural changes in consumer behavior must be taken into account, but also to be able to modernize our product, communicating with the modern tourist and his specialized desires.”
Thanos Michailidis particularly stressed that an aggressive campaign should be launched to market the Cypriot tourism product in foreign markets. And a necessary condition for such a thing, he concluded, is the further development of the air connection of Cyprus with main markets.
In the same spirit of product specialization and modernization, is the recent participation of the Paphos Region Tourism Development and Promotion Company (ETAP) in the 14th International Conference on Cultural Tourism held in Athens, on “Renaissance of European Tourism through Culture, the Heritage and Creativity “.
The conference focused on the important role of culture, heritage and creativity in the revitalization of European tourism, following the pandemic crisis in 2020 and 2021.
The conference included parallel sessions on the thematic modules with presentations from 22 countries, including cultural tourism research projects in the European Horizon 2020 program, as well as ECTN interregional cooperation projects in the Interreg Europe program. Also presented were actions of the Hellenic Society of Environment and Culture (ELLET), regarding the culture paths and the railway heritage.
The Green Paper on Climate Change “Putting the Common Heritage at the Heart of the Europe Green Agreement” by Europa Nostra, ICOMOS and the European Investment Bank Institute was also presented. This was followed by the screening of a documentary about the new cultural route “In the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, Apostle of the Nations” produced by ECTN with the Region of Central Macedonia, the Lazio Region of Italy and the Paphos Region Tourism Development and Promotion Company.
The conference concludes that culture, heritage and creativity can and should be the solid foundations needed to revitalize tourism in post-pandemic Europe, with green growth, digital transformation and partnerships for sustainable tourism.
Under the microscope of Paphos institutions
In parallel with the planning for the tourism of the next day of the pandemic, the tourist institutions of Paphos are following the real and immediate developments in the issue of market normalization, after a catastrophic 2020. The estimate that existed since the end of July, that The increase in the traffic of visitors in the province of Paphos that was recorded then will continue in the fall, is confirmed by the above, creating a scenario of relative euphoria in the province for the gradual permanent recovery of good tourism indicators. Now, the attention of tourism and economy in Paphos is focused on the month we are already going through, since, as they emphasize, it is crucial for Paphos to maintain the momentum built since July, which will increase the dynamics of tourism in view of the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Although the focus is now on foreign tourism, which seems to be recovering after last year, Paphos tourism does not leave aside local tourism. The results of the Paphos tourism industry campaign aimed at domestic tourism, during the pandemic, had such impressive results that the provincial authorities now consider domestic tourism as an important parameter of the Paphos product.
The tourism campaign continues
The Paphos tourism campaign with the assistance of the Ministry of Tourism and Paphos Airport Management Company, Hermes, in the international markets, on a scientific basis and using algorithms and the largest digital international travel database in the world, will continue until the end. month. The results are already very positive, but the official completion of the campaign is expected with particular interest to show the difference compared to previous campaigns, as the current one is the first campaign undertaken in Cyprus on the basis of scientific assistance from international databases.
The people in charge of the tourism campaign pointed out that an amount of 280 thousand euros has been raised, which is already available from the beginning of the tourist season for the targeted digital promotion campaign of the province of Paphos internationally. For the first time in Cyprus, they point out, a campaign is being attracted to attract visitors based on scientific analysis of travel data by the largest international travel data bank using algorithmic data, which fully specify the target audience of the campaign.
The campaign, according to representatives of PASYXE Paphos, Hermes Airports and ETAP, focuses on the United Kingdom, Central and Northern European countries, Israel and France.
It is characteristic, as they said, that after this scientific specialization of the campaign, there is a record increase of 750% due to targeting, compared to the results of the 2019 campaign and a number of three million unique visitors to the relevant website of Paphos.
