(TAN): The tourism ministry to Cyprus has designed a 10-year plan aiming to place the country among the world’s 30 top travel destinations, reports said.
Cyprus, currently occupying the 44th position, hopes to accomplish the feat by 2030, as per reports.
According to reports, Deputy Tourism Minister Savvas Peridos, who submitted the plan to the cabinet recently, said together with reestablishing the culture of hospitality, bettering the country’s competitiveness index to secure a place among the 30 most competitive countries worldwide by 2030 constituted one of the five pillars of the national tourist strategy.
[ALSO READ: Singer Akon to establish “sustainable tourist village” Akon City in Senegal]
The strategy’s five pillars reportedly also included increasing overnight stays by 32%, growth in arrivals to five million, and raising EUR 1.5 billion (USD 1.7 billion approximately) in additional revenues.
As per reports, Perdios said they aimed to achieve 40% overnight stays from November to April, with 400,000 of them in rural and hilly regions.
Making Cyprus a year-round tourist destination and improving sustainability in tourism were the other pillars, reports said.
“Climate change is not an option, it is imperative. We have a long way to go to prove that we care about the environment,” Perdios was quoted by Cyprus Mail as saying.
[ALSO READ: Tourists arrested over accusations of defecating at sacred Machu Picchu temple]
The Deputy Minister reportedly said that 2019 was a successful year for the tourism sector, despite the challenges such as uncertainty around Brexit, the growth of neighbouring tourist destinations, and the collapse of tour operator Thomas Cook, which he called the gravest crisis the sector faced in the past decade.
“What we achieved was a feat. Despite the difficulties and challenges, they (results) ranged at around the same levels as 2018,” Cyprus Mail quoted Perdios as saying.
Perdios also noted that the island had to tap new markets while drawing the attention and intrigue of different nationalities and age groups, reports said. The focus was reportedly on the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries in 2019, which has to be turned to Belgium, France and the Scandinavian countries this year.
