Filenews 6 November 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The new data in the promotion of tourism in our country, with the importance now attributed to digital marketing, have already benefited Pafos to the greatest extent as a tourist destination, since those involved in the province are pioneers in the exploitation of these new methods of promotion. This was highlighted during the presentation event of the results of the campaign to promote Paphos in the international arena, which took place this week at the Almyra Hotel on the initiative of the Paphos Region Tourism Development and Promotion Company (ETAP) and PASYXE Paphos.
The presentation concerned the results of the digital campaign for the period April-October of this year and was attended by hoteliers and tourism operators of the province. According to the Paphos Etap, more than eight million unique potential visitors have received the messages of the e-campaign, while more than three million recipients of the video message have fully completed its viewing.
The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Savvas Perdios, who attended the Paphos meeting, expressed his full satisfaction with the fact that Paphos has embraced the new data in the field of digital marketing for two years now. "We support through sponsorship the ETAP and the whole effort", he stressed, "and we are pleased to see this effort constantly improving its results and targeting. Already, one of the main messages is that there will be an expansion of this campaign until the end of this year."
The Deputy Minister of Tourism announced that the funds allocated for this campaign will be further increased, so that it will be done all year round, as the Deputy Ministry of Tourism does with its own campaigns.
The president of PASYXE Paphos, Thanos Michaelides, described the results of the study as very satisfactory and expressed confidence that the emerging rise will continue next year.
"This is a very successful and pioneering effort of the private and public sector," he said, "and our goal is not only to improve the flow of tourists to the district of Paphos, but also the quality of the tourist. In the two years that this campaign has been going on, we have seen the indicators constantly improve. This is a campaign based on the most modern technology related to digital marketing and is based on market research that was done last year, to have the right targeting of the tourist we want to attract to Paphos".
On his part, the President of the ETAP, Kyriakos Droussiotis, stressed that the goal is to continue this promotion until mid-December, so that Paphos is not absent from the markets. "Such a development," he pointed out, "will be of particular help for the winter season which will be a little more difficult this year."
An important aspect of the study of the tourist agencies of Paphos was also the one that concerned the profile of the average visitor and how much this has begun to change due to the pandemic.
Characteristically, the Deputy Minister of Tourism observed that even the British market, which is the dominant market of Cyprus and especially Paphos, this year has recorded a decrease of 10%, which was expected. "Even before the pandemic and before the war in Ukraine we expected that because of Brexit we would see at some stage a reduction from this market," he said. "This means that the emphasis on European Union markets is significant and that visitors come to Paphos from many EU countries. Many of them rent cars to go to other areas, such as Pyrgos Tyllirias and Polis Chrysochous. While before the pandemic there was a 70% dependence of tourism on tour operators with charter flights, now this percentage does not exceed 50%, which means that the remaining 50% are individual travellers who really come to discover all the areas, but also special forms of tourism".
Savvas Perdios noted that through special forms of tourism Paphos can attract younger tourists, adding that young people aged 25 and 30 want activities in nature.
The president of ETAP, Kyriakos Droussiotis, stressed to "F" that as part of the effort to promote the digital campaign, it became possible to raise an amount of €150,000 to carry out this campaign. "For the second time in the annals of Cyprus, such an action to promote a tourist destination is planned and executed based on the analysis and continuous evaluation of travel data through the utilization of Sojern, the largest Travel Data Marketing Engine in the world," he pointed out. "With the use of advanced algorithmic technology, the interest of potential visitors in Paphos as well as in competitive destinations is identified online and the promotional message is targeted to potential visitors."
This campaign began in April 2022, peaked in the summer months and ended in mid-October, while focusing mainly on main or emerging markets such as those of Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Poland and Israel.
The conference that took place a few months ago at the Annabelle Hotel in Kato Paphos is considered to be a supportive of Pafos' effort to gain a leading position in the new forms of digital tourism promotion. This is the Desti Smart Interreg conference of the European Union. Welcoming the work of the conference, the Deputy Minister of Tourism had pointed out that Cyprus is already a country fully harmonized with the process of transition to new smart tourism practices. We have already started a few years ago, he stressed, the national strategy for tourism, with a horizon of 2030. "This new practice will last until 2030 when we will be able to turn Cyprus into an all-year-round destination," he said. "A higher quality, climate-friendly and digitally smart destination. We will leverage technology and data to make the destination smarter in terms of what it offers to our visitors in which all residents can benefit from tourism."
Manos Vougioukas, coordinator of the European project Desti Smart Interreg Europe, said the Paphos conference is the end of four years of work with 10 partners, one of which is the Cypriot city. "The Desti Smart Interreg Europe project aims to improve transport and tourism policies in destinations by integrating strategies for sustainable mobility, accessibility and responsible travel into sustainable tourism development through efficiency, resilience, intermodality, new transport systems, cycling and walking for visitors," he explained.
For a smarter Paphos
The President of the ETAP, Kyriakos Droussiotis, expressed the satisfaction of the tourism body of the Paphos district, for the fact that a project whose subject matter is fully in line with the strategy of the Paphos district is being completed. "The goal and purpose of all Paphos partners is to make the destination even smarter," he observed. "Through this program we have managed to become recipients of good practices and with EU funding to implement a specific pilot action plan that can be used mainly by visitors. The DESTI-SMART project with the ultimate goal of Smart Destinations contributes to the EU's commitment to building an environmentally sustainable low-carbon economy with smart technologies. The project facilitates the adoption of Information and Communication Technology solutions for sustainable mobility and accessibility to tourist destinations, thus making tourism in European regions more efficient in various ways. Sustainable and responsible tourism can benefit greatly from digital applications at all stages of visitor information, travel guidance, intermodality and seamless travel solutions."
