Tourists flood to Nicosia as resorts seek to ease overcrowding

COASTAL resorts are so crowded that tourists are being encouraged to stay in Nicosia for a couple of days during their holiday to alleviate the overcrowding.

The result of this is that Nicosia is seeing an unusual rise in tourism with tour operators suggesting that tourists take a holiday within their holiday, and stay in the capital for a few nights. The operators promote Nicosia by stressing its political importance to Cyprus and its places of historical interest and worth.

The coastal areas sending the most tourists to the capital are Ayia Napa and Protaras.

According to the Union of Tourist Agencies, such increases in tourism for the capital have occurred before but only for short periods of time. The head of the Union, Michalis Zigas, said the influx of tourists to Nicosia for one or two nights made it easier for coastal hotels to accept even more tourists.

Cyprus is currently enjoying a bumper tourist season, with hotels working at full capacity and neither political tensions nor the heatwave seeming to frighten tourists off.

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.