Tourism ‘supported the economy in 2011’

 

15:14 IT WAS tourism that supported the ailing economy this year, according to Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou.

“It is an area which has shown actual development”, she said, adding that “tourist arrivals increased by 11.1 per cent and revenue by 14.4 per cent up until September.

Antoniadou said she had put forward a proposal for cooperation among Eastern Mediterranean countries to present a joint tourist product or to organise combined visits in the region.

“This way the region’s tourist product will attract greater interest and the numbers of tourists coming to the entire region will increase”, she said.

Antoniadou said that Cyprus would host a Tourism Forum during its six-month rotating presidency of the EU in the second half of 2012. The event, she said, was due to take place in October, which could help boost tourist arrivals for the winter season.

“During my visit to London, I have also spoken with the World Tourism Organisation and we are trying to organise an event of the WTO in Cyprus as well,” she said.

(Cyprus News Agency)

 

 

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.