The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO), responsible for organising and promoting tourism within the country, has concluded a multi-city GCC roadshow as part of ongoing efforts to increase visitor numbers from strategic Gulf source markets in 2019.

The three-city tour follows the appointment of a senior official to amplify future promotional activity across the GCC, with Cyprus seeing gradual increases in Gulf visitors throughout 2018.

With overall tourism arrivals to Cyprus between January and October of this year totalling more than 3.67 million - an increase of 7.8 per cent on the same 10-month period in 2017 - Kuwait led GCC increases, registering a 38.2 per cent increase, while UAE visitors increased by 6.7 per cent.

Designed to reinforce CTO’s commitment to working with regional partners to encourage travel to Cyprus, the GCC roadshow saw the tourism board joined by delegates from hotels and destination management companies in hosting more than 150 travel agents in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Manama.
The roadshow programme featured informative presentations by Christos Demetriou, who was recently appointed as director of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation Office in Dubai.

“Cyprus continues to welcome increased numbers of travellers from the region and we anticipate this growth continuing in coming years. Our aim is to promote the island as a diverse, year-round destination that caters to all tastes of travellers,” said Demetriou.

“Our recent travel trade roadshow builds on numerous regional activities conducted alongside our strategic partners, and we are optimistic these highly-focused efforts will continue to boost GCC tourism arrivals,” Demetriou added.

With Cyprus on four hours flying time most Gulf cities, travellers can take advantage of direct flights operated by Gulf Air from Bahrain and Emirates from Dubai, CTO said in a statement. - TradeArabia News Service