Karousos: "The Ministry of Tourism should start from scratch and with a big budget"

The assessment that in order for the Ministry of Tourism to succeed, it must start from scratch, move to electronic promotion and have a budget commensurate with the contribution of tourism to the economy of Cyprus, expressed the Mayor of Ayia Napa, Giannis Karousos.

As Mr. Karousos stated in KYPE, “the Ministry of Tourism was created after decades of efforts and at the request of the tourism industry, which is the main industry in Cyprus. However, in order for the Ministry of State to succeed, it must leave behind everything related to or reminiscent of the Cyprus Tourism Organization, starting from scratch, building a solid foundation and giving the message that there really is a new beginning ".

He added that he proposes various proposals for the success of the Ministry of Tourism, starting with the Ministry of Finance, which must "require a budget commensurate with the importance and contribution of tourism to the economy of Cyprus to implement the National Tourism Strategy, which requires billions." investment in tourism and infrastructure ”.

According to Mr. Karousos, "today tourism contributes about 3 billion out of 19 billion. of Cyprus, which represents about 16%. The budget of the Ministry of Tourism is 55 million, the majority of which is distributed in salaries and operating expenses, while this money represents much less than 1% (0,0065%) of the state budget expenditures, which are about 8 billion ".

Tourism continued Ayia Napa Mayor “with a direct contribution to GDP of 16%, it definitely deserves a higher budget in a tourist country. "According to the National Strategy for Tourism, an investment of about 8 billion euros will be required from the state until 2030 in planning, tourism infrastructure projects and for the creation of new tourist experiences".

Among other things, Mr. Karousos proposes "transfer of the Ministry of State to electronic promotion and promotion and the use of" smart "ways of promotion, since the traditional standard methods have been overcome. With the cooperation of experts, a strategic plan for electronic promotion and new branding should be immediately prepared and then a tender should be announced for the assignment of its implementation (plan) by experts in this field ".

The Mayor suggested that “an amount of 20 million euros per year be given for e-promotion and branding, an amount that should increase every year at a fixed percentage of tourism revenues. "If Cyprus manages to have millions of followers on the internet and on social media, then every message and every post will reach tens of millions of internet users".

Among the proposals of the Mayor of Ayia Napa is education and suggests that the State Department take appropriate initiatives to "educate" citizens and entrepreneurs about the importance of tourism. It is also necessary to include in schools, a lesson of tourist awareness in order to give the message to the children about the importance of tourism ".

As Mr. Karousos said, “the Ministry of Tourism should prepare an contingency plan which can be used in case of crisis. "Unfortunately today we are dependent on geopolitical developments and we have a bad experience from the past," he said, noting that "uncertainty over Brexit and several other geopolitical risks are forcing us to be prepared."

The tourism that Cyprus has, he noted, “has proved to be more than enough for the development of the economy. With the operation of the Ministry of Tourism, everyone's expectations are high "he said and wished" the best to the new Deputy Minister Savva Perdio, whom we will support with all our forces for the implementation of the goals of the Ministry ".

Famagusta.News / KYPE