Filenews 10 December 2025
The Government is not only investing in achieving numerical performance, but in the quality characteristics of the destination Cyprus, Deputy Minister of Tourism Costas Koumis said on Tuesday, noting at the same time that all stakeholders have a responsibility "to jointly plan our country's tourism for the next decade, realizing together that tourism is entering a new cycle".
Mr. Koumis was speaking during the annual General Assembly of the Association of Travel and Tour Operators of Cyprus (ACTTA) in Nicosia.
According to Mr. Koumis, the timing of this year's General Assembly brings Cypriot tourism to the end of another successful year, but also to face great challenges in view of 2026, with the Republic of Cyprus taking over, in the first half of the year, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
He added that the three-year period 2023-2025, which ends in about a month from today, can be described as "the ultimate period of recovery of Cypriot tourism, but also of confirmation of the resilience that now characterizes it, since despite the fact that it was tested successively in the post-Covid era, it continued to fly high".
"Through targeted actions and actions, and with excellent public-private cooperation, we have all managed together, not only to return to pre-pandemic levels, but also to record remarkable performance, with pan-European distinctions, as our country is first at a pan-European level according to the data of the Aviation Council, in the improvement of air connectivity in the comparison of the years 2025/2024 and second in the key comparison between the years 2025/2019''.
As he mentioned, Cyprus is the country with the highest change in the tourism revenue index for the first half of the year, among all European countries in the Mediterranean.
He also cited data published by Eurostat two months ago, according to which Cyprus is the country with the largest increase in overnight stays in hotel accommodation between the years 2024/2023, with the rate of increase amounting to 14.5% compared to 2.7% which is the European average", adding that "our country's tourism, It has not only recovered, it has exceeded all precedents, always in relation to quantitative targets."
Since taking office as a government in 2023, we have prioritized not only the recovery of the sector, but also the building of long-term resilience, the Deputy Minister continued, adding that tourism can no longer be evaluated only on the basis of numbers.
«The time has come to start evaluating success in tourism differently, and certainly to re-engage with the long-standing challenges of tourism, such as the issue of seasonality, which I also think needs to be reconsidered, in the light of new data. The most important thing, however, is that the time has come to invest even more in the green, in the digital transition, but mainly in local communities, because tourism as an economic sector must be primarily rewarding, in addition to being productive", he further stressed.
Mr. Koumis added that the pillars of development based on the principles of sustainability, the support of local communities and the promotion of local products, as well as the actions for the protection of the natural environment, have been highlighted in essence by the European Agenda for Tourism 2030 which was established in 2022 and which the government and the competent Deputy Ministry are implementing in practice.
He added that the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, as the competent state body, has utilized and continues to utilize the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, having already launched the channelling to tourism businesses and local communities, an amount that is expected to exceed €20 million at the end of the measure, investing in the upgrading of the rural, mountainous and remote areas of the country, in the support of hotel businesses operating in these areas and in the timeless value of authenticity, "an element that I believe can be one of the secrets of success in the coming years".
"Essentially, we are constantly investing in the quality characteristics of the destination Cyprus, and the announcements of the last weeks/months regarding legislative regulations, such as the approval by the Council of Ministers of the bill on diving tourism, belong to this context," said the Deputy Minister.
"The investment for the creation of a truly competitive digital application, the action concerning the writing of the history of Cyprus Tourism, the announcement of the announcement of a study on medical tourism, concern actions that belong to the exact same context, which demonstrate beyond any doubt that as a government we did not only invest in achieving numerical performance, but we invested and are investing in the quality characteristics of the destination Cyprus", Underlined.
"With the end of the year 2024 and the achievement of historic records of arrivals and revenues, we rightfully called the year 2024 a landmark year for tourism in our country. In 2025, tourism performance rose even higher. Now, I think that all together, we have a responsibility. To jointly plan our country's tourism for the next decade, realizing together that tourism is entering a new cycle", he pointed out, adding that the effort essentially concerns the construction of a more modern tourism model, more authentic for visitors and more beneficial for the citizens of the country, while investing in the tourist experience with a Cyprus flavour.
Addressing the tour operators, he said that they have the fluency, the influence, but also the power to be the best companions in this great challenge, and expressed the certainty that with the action plans they will be called upon many times to plan together after the announcement of the new tourism strategy, they will prove to be worthy companions.
"The promotion of new destinations, the promotion of authentic Cyprus, the promotion of the aroma of our country, are some of the bets of the next day and in this effort we really need to join forces, because the real bet now is to transform tourism progress and prosperity into progress and prosperity for all," concluded Mr. Koumis.
CNA
