The hotels in the free area of Famagusta are overcrowded and the competent authorities of the area estimate that this year not only Ayia Napa and Protaras but the whole of Cyprus is going through one of the best tourist seasons.
As the Director of the Famagusta Tourism Development and Promotion Company, Lakis Avraamidis, stated to KYPE, “this year our region has one of the best tourist seasons. However, the phenomenon with tourism is pan-Cypriot this year, since the whole of Cyprus is doing very well ".
He added that “the province of Famagusta is overcrowded with the occupancy of hotels being very high. With the arrival of the holidays of August 15, all the free rooms that may have been available have been closed and we believe that the fullness of the hotels will continue after the departure of the Cypriot visitors, so there will be more rooms ".
According to Mr. Avraamidis, "all indications are that the good season will continue until mid-October. Our goal is to continue the tourist season until mid-November and the start of the tourist season of 2017 to start next March, ie to cover a period of 8-9 months ".
Answering a relevant question, he said that “the province of Famagusta has always had the majority of the main tourism markets, namely Russia, the Nordic countries, Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Germany, while this year there is a large increase in arrivals from Middle Eastern countries. In general, our region has a diversity in the arrivals of tourists which leaves all the factors completely satisfied ".
Asked whether the restoration of relations between Russia and Turkey will affect the arrival in Russia of visitors from Russia, Mr. Avraamidis said that "in recent years the Russian market has a steady increase in the arrival of tourists in Cyprus. "Even when Russia-Turkey relations were very good and about 2 million Russian tourists visited Turkey, Cyprus received a large number of visitors," he said, adding that "this will continue with the improvement of relations between Russia and Russia." Turkey ”.
I believe, he continued "that with the restoration of relations between the two countries, what will affect us is the arrival in Cyprus of football teams from Russia that visited our island this year to prepare them. "We estimate that with the improvement of the relations between the two countries, the Russian football teams will prefer Turkey from next year, since the conditions for preparation there are much better than in Cyprus".
He added that "the Cyprus Tourism Organization should prepare a draft grant for the football teams from Russia, to proceed with the immediate announcement of a new plan so that the teams that close their training facilities from September, have an offer from the Cyprus ”.
Mr. Avraamidis also referred to the re-circulation of the tourist map of the free province of Famagusta which contains all the sights of the area, noting that the slogan of the map that exists in all hotels is "Every visitor and map".
He explained that “the Famagusta Tourism Development and Promotion Company has printed the map in 400,000 copies in English and Russian. The map includes all the sights, places and monuments of the Province of Famagusta which the visitor can and is worth visiting, the cycling routes and nature trails in Cape Greco and the surrounding area and all the diving points of the area along the entire length of the coastline, from Agia Thekla, Ayia Napa and Protaras ”.
Source: KYPE