Cyprus plans to attract more Bahraini tourists in coming years

Cyprus Tourism has active plans in place to attract more tourists from the Kingdom in the coming years, according to the country’s deputy tourism minister.

Speaking to Tribune, Savvas Perdios said tourism can play an important role in boosting the ties between the two countries, together with business and trade. The Cyprus Deputy Minister’s statement follows talks between foreign ministers of both countries to adopt a mutual approach on a number of regional and international issues apart from strengthening co-operation in many areas. “As of now, Bahrain’s contribution to Cyprus’ tourist arrivals is relatively low, with 2,200 tourist arrivals in 2018 and 2,700 in 2017. But there are good prospects to further develop the Bahrain arrivals.

Gulf Air connects the two countries for over 30 years offering very good connectivity all year round since Bahrain is also a hub for Gulf visitors traveling to Cyprus as well as from travelers beyond. “As a result, many more tourists from the region visit Cyprus via Bahrain, even from Dubai and Abu Dhabi due to the competitive pricing,” he added.

When asked about the challenges faced by the country’s tourism sector, Mr. Perdios said: “Tourism industry is a dynamic sector, full of challenges and we have been facing these challenges successfully for many years, reaching the historic record in tourist arrivals in 2018.

“We believe that Cyprus has some unique competitive advantages to overcome the tough competition from neighboring countries such as high quality of services, hospitality of people, proximity/small island/,many experiences, safe destination, friendly to visitors from the Gulf, authentic experiences, both beautiful sandy beaches and mountain resorts, agro-tourism.”

Cyprus with its 11,000 years of history is an open-air museum with the influences of Greek, Roman, Venetians, Franks, Ottomans and the British civilization sites all over the island.