WITH summer in full swing Cypriots are being urged to do their bit to boost the Greek economy by holidaying there.
The campaign, “Holidays abroad? Let’s go to Greece”, will begin this Friday and run till the beginning of July, using roadside billboards and adverts in daily newspapers to get the message out to people.
According to the president of the Cyprus-Greece Business Association, Akis Pigasiou, the campaign is aimed at encouraging all Cypriots who would usually go abroad for their holidays, to go to Greece.
“By doing so I believe that we’ll help Greece’s tourism and in turn its economy, which we all know is facing serious problems,” said Pigasiou adding that the initiative is also part of the association’s activities to strengthen trade and economic relations between the two countries. “We want to send a message to our brothers in Greece that Cyprus cares and that Greeks here care about what goes on in Greece.”
Pigasiou stressed that the tourist flow between the two countries is “evolving positively,” with Greece proving to be one of the top holiday destinations for Cypriots. Out of the 840,000 holiday trips made abroad in 2010 around 300,000 of them were made to Greece.
A variety of airlines provide direct flights to the Greek mainland as well as some of the islands, such as Heraklion, Mykonos, Kos and Santorini. President of the Association of Travel Agents, Victor Mantovani said on Monday that flights to Greece and the Greek islands are almost fully booked this year.
Economic and trade advisor at the Greek Embassy to Cyprus, Vasillis Skronias described the initiative as “extremely moving”, saying that an increased flow of tourists to Greece is significant as it is an immediate source of income for the country. He also mentioned the relationship between the two countries, hoping that Cyprus will once again turn to support Greece. “Cyprus became a member of the EU mainly due to Greece,” said Skronias, also calling on consumers to buy Greek products.
Commercial transactions between Greece and Cyprus are up by 7.3 per cent for 2010, according to Pigasiou, with the transactions reaching €1.46 billion compared to €1.36 billion in 2009. Greek investments on the island for 2009 total €710 million.
There has also been an 11 per cent increase from 2009 to 2010 in exports from Cyprus to Greece from €220 million to €244 million respectively. For the same period Cyprus’ imports from Greece increased by seven per cent from 2009 to 2010, from €1.14 billion to €1.22 billion respectively.
Pigasiou believes that with their collaboration both countries can expand their own economic and trade relations. For example Greece can help Cypriot companies that want to expand into the Balkans and Cyprus can in turn help Greek companies that want to invest in the Middle East.
After the campaign, the Association plans to take similar action to promote the products of both Greece and Cyprus.
