Tourism in Cyprus

Discuss About The Exploring Hospitality And Tourism Landscapes.

In modern days, tourism is being marked by several social and economical trends. Cyprus is a tourist destination in the Eastern Mediterranean and third largest populous island that imposes daily adjustments into the varying market conditions, primarily through the improvement in the competitiveness in its tourism offer. An important requirement for the formation of such an offer is to make the system effective in order to manage the overall tourist destination, that is, destination management. The tourism in Cyprus occupies the most dominant position in the overall economy of the country. In addition to this, it impacts the culture of the country as well as its multicultural development through the decades (Zopiatis, Constanti and Theocharous 2014).

In the year 2006, the tourism industry has contributed 10.7% of the Gross Domestic Product. In the same year, the overall employment was estimated around 113,000 jobs. With around three million visitors travelling to this place every year, it has become one of the most popular tourist destinations of the world. In terms of tourism infrastructure and tourism industry, the country stands in the first position all across the world. As per the World Economic Forum, Cyprus is on the 29^th position in terms of world competitiveness. With the most cleanest and popular beaches in Europe, Cyprus has become a major part of the tourism market in Europe. It is a boost for the overall tourism market but at the same time, it is challenging. The country needs to stay true to its tourists, identity and maintain the uniqueness.

The tourist population, today, has become one of the most active sectors, which demands a more complex and more meaningful tourist product. Apart than the tourist products, the tourist experiences are the most commonly considered factor today. Managing tourism at all levels of the decision making is becoming more and more complex in modern days, no matter what is the degree of the tourism development sector of the geographic area. In addition to this, it is highly important for emphasizing upon the dynamic conditions like global changes, growth as well as development of the tourism destinations, survival and other factors for continuous strategic thinking (Farmaki et al. 2014).

The purpose of this report is to evaluate the hospitality and tourism resources of the country Cyprus, that is underdeveloped or under resourced. Identification of these resources might help the country to maximize their potentiality of tourism within the region. In addition to this, the region’s comparative as well as competitive advantage is included in the report. Moreover, the report consists of an innovation plan which the destination management planner will design, in order to develop the resources and identify the market segments. The report also highlights the regional, national and international stakeholders, who need to be engaged for maximizing the potential success of the destination management plan. Lastly, the report discusses about the major challenges the region is likely to face in implementing the recommendations.

Underdeveloped Resources of Cyprus

Cyprus is a beautiful place along with a long history, a rich culture and a small island, which spans over 10,000 years. It is one of the oldest civilizations in the Mediterranean, evidenced by various fascinating museums, cultural sights, galleries and monuments. Situated at the crossroads of the three continents, that is, Europe, Africa and Asia, the island has much more to offer to its visitors. However, there are many under-developed and under-resourced places of Cyprus, whose development have the potential to enhance the experiences of the visitors, increase their numbers and thereby, maximize the economic potential of the hospitality as well as tourism within the region (Brotherton 2015).

Kalo Chorio is a tiny village at Cyprus, which is not that easy to reach; however, that is exactly the reason what makes that place so enchanting. At Kalo Chorio, one can visit a number of handful vineyards, which produce Commandaria. The place has its own charm, which has the potential to attract the most number of visitors. Commandaria is believed to be one of the oldest port wines of the world (Boukas and Ziakas 2013). The best time to visit this place is during September, when the weather is a bit cooler, best time for harvesting grapes.

Paphos is a city situated on the south west coast of Mediterranean island of the Cyprus. The whole of Paphos is like an open history book, filled up with historical gems. The entire region is designated as the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Moreover, Lempa is also not an exception, which is located just a few kilometers away from Paphos. It is far more than a pretty small place. Like other villages of Cyprus, Lempa has its own stories to tell to its visitors that are both colorful and intricate. The village stands proudly as one of the ancient villages on the island.

In addition to this, there are other places like Aphrodite’s Sanctuary Mosaics in Kouklia, where the entire village has the greatest mythological and historic significance. The village was once known as Old Paphos or Palaepaphos, which is one of the oldest kingdoms of the region. Moreover, there are places like Kalavasos in the Larnaca district, Tamasos Archaeological Site in the Nicosia district, Wall of Old Chora and many more places, which are surely going to win the hearts of many visitors. Tamasos have some magnificent tombs and dams, which is going to take the tourists back to Bronze Age (Farmaki et al. 2015). In the late 1800’s the three tombs of Cypro-Archaic period were being discovered first. However, only two of them survive today.

Competitive and Comparative Advantage of Cyprus

Moreover, majority of the avid hikers have not heard of Artemis Trail, which is a walking trail all through the Troodos Mountains. It is named after Goddess Artemis that circle around the Mount Olympus. Thus, it can prove to be the best place for the hikers, who can get their own hiking boots and trainers for the two and a half hour, almost seven km walk to explore the dense forest. The tourists will get the majestic views of special black pines as well as plenty of rare and rich floras in the forests. Therefore, it is important to mention here that Cyprus is a magnificent place with some rich heritage and culture, which the visitors are surely going to love and admire.

On discussing about the competitive and comparative advantage of Cyprus, it is important to mention that the only asset which can be regarded as a differentiating and unique strategy is the climate of the place. The climate can be the foundation upon which Cyprus can build a comparative as well as competitive advantage. It is however, imperative to mention that on one hand, Cyprus’ comparative advantage can be created on the basis of its island’s climate. Moreover, on the other hand, the competitive advantage constitutes the place’s unique and marketing experiences of the visitors. Finally, several aspects of the general competitiveness of Cyprus can be improved like gastronomical weaknesses, visual pollution, airport, internal transportation and others (Nickson 2013).

Moreover, attracting the visitors by developing the under-resourced areas can help the island country to achieve competitive as well as comparative advantages. In addition to this, attracting the partners as well as investors for the tourism as well as business deals is easier and thanks to the outstanding climate of business on the island country. These factors contribute a lot to the great comparative advantage, as Cyprus has outstanding climate all around the Europe. The weather of the place also has the potential to add up to the competitive advantage, if Cyprus develops their theme and under-resourced areas. Cyprus has some exceptional and unique tourist spots, which has the power to cater to the eyes of the visitors.

Cyprus is relatively a small territory; however, the place has reasonable diversity of activities and attractions. These can easily be the foundation upon which Cyprus can develop a memorable experience for its tourists from all over the world. Moreover, it can turn into a relevant comparative as well as competitive advantage of the country. However, the core strategy of the country is to achieve it main advantages by the year 2030. The main competitive advantage focuses would be on the climate, safety, hospitality, tourism performance and comfort or service. With the help of the partners as well as investors, the country wants to develop its scopes in tourism business (Lam and McKercher 2013).

Innovation Plan for Developing Resources and Identifying Market Segments

Cyprus needs to adopt certain strategies in order to innovate or develop their resources and make the place a major tourist destination spot. The kind of innovation it needs to focus on are, its islands, beaches, scenery, cultural and natural mosaic, outstanding heritage sites and others. These factors have significant weight and have the power to raise the country’s tourist heads. Adventure as well as nature represents some potential growth of the place (Brida, Cortes-Jimenez and Pulina 2016). The country has both the external and internal conditions which are necessary for overcoming the competitive slump and also to grow in a sustainable as well as profitable way.

The market growth potential of the country is determined by several factors, those are discussed in this part of the report. According to the UNWTO data, the overall number of the international tourist arrivals will grow rapidly at the rate of 4.6% annually, until the year of 2025. This falls under the category of growth of international tourism and moreover, Europe will be the main region for outbound and inbound international travel at the rate of 4% annually. In addition to this, innovative steps of digital marketing can be adopted by the country and the focus must be on the cultural heritage sites (Causevic and Lynch 2013).

The country’s official website must consist of some unique destinations and their pictures, which will grab the attention of the visitors. Moreover, the Mediterranean will continue to remain the favorite destination for the wanderlusts from all over the Europe and other parts of the world. In addition to this, development of the under-resourced areas will enable tourist growths at 4.4% annual rate. Furthermore, there are several internal factors as well which will ensure the growth potential of the country. Along with 2.5 million international visitors per year, the country is actually far away from reaching the full potential of the tourists’ density, taking the population and space into consideration (Sharpley and Telfer 2015).

Moreover, the country needs to focus on its accommodation facilities and capacities, as it operates at the annual rate of around 60% occupancy. This is considered to be a critical factor, taking into consideration the significant marginal growths and market shares. Therefore, it can be stated that the reduced activity levels during the shoulder and off-peak seasons will enable the hoteliers to increase their rooms and services further. The lower shares of market, particularly in the European markets present a wide marginal growth.

Engaging Regional, National, and International Stakeholders

The forecasts on the basis of the market research convey that in six of the important source markets, which estimated around 24.7 million tourists for Cyprus. The tourist marketing of the country is not yet efficient enough and therefore, better implementation of the innovative strategies would hugely contribute to the increase of the tourism industry. The country needs to take the advantage of the overall growth potential in various ways and to several degrees. In order to illustrate the alternatives, five innovative scenarios are being developed on the basis of several assumptions and to determine the growth in demand.

The common variables for improving the tourist growth are increasing the income of the source markets. This is basically the analysis which is being carried out in order to show the close relationship between the available income rates and the tendency to travel. The overall study of the growth trends in several economies allows an interval of the sustainable annual growth rate of 0.5% to 3.0%. Moreover, the country needs to increase their tourism related investments. The investments in improving as well as creating the facilities, internal as well as external environment, infrastructure and others have a direct impact upon the demand growth (Horner and Swarbrooke 2016). As per the estimations, a reasonable interval for the annual investments’ growth may fall between 1.5% and 4.0%.

In addition to this, Cyprus needs to increase its tourism communications and promotional activities. It is immensely important for the marketers to set up the policies of communications, public relations, promotions, marketing, advertisements and others as these factors play a major role in increasing the overall demand of the place. The overall analysis indicates that the plausible annual growth needs must remain in between 1.0% and 3.5% at various markets on the international platform (Waligo, Clarke and Hawkins 2013).

Moreover, any positive changes in terms of demand diversity have the power to encourage the better average expenditures. As per estimations, the annual variation of the markets can fluctuate from the annual expenditure, decrease by 2% and an increase by 2%. The stability of the market is a major factor, which needs to be taken care of. In addition to this, the branding effect is also a factor, which will enable Cyprus to improve its market potential to a huge extent. The positive changes to the international recognition of Cyprus will help in contributing to the tourists’ arrival representing better average expenditures. The estimated evaluation of the annual variation can reach up to the increase of 20% (Konovalova and Vidishcheva 2013).

Challenges for Implementing the Recommendations

The country has several opportunities in terms of revenue growth, productivity improvement and other opportunities. Moreover, there are opportunities to expand the customer base by targeting the new markets as well as improving the value proposition. The overall opportunities for the internal process development and improvement can benefit the country to a huge extent. In addition to this, there are several opportunities of developing as well as improving cultural competencies as well as capabilities for enabling the strategic priorities.

In this part of the report, the identification of the regional, national and international stakeholders is done, which need to be engaged for maximizing the potential success of the destination management plan. The involvement as well as the support of the key stakeholders will help the government officials to ensure that the transport meets the demands. The stakeholders are being categorized into three broad categories that are the regional, national and international stakeholders. The participation of the stakeholders benefits the country to a huge extent and ensures network sustainability. The regional stakeholders of Cyprus include the local communities, local government officials, counselors, transport operators, unions, residents of the country, private sector organizations, hoteliers and representatives from the major industries like mining, tourism and agriculture.

The national stakeholders of the country are the state governments, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and central government. The international stakeholders of Cyprus are the supranational organizations, World Trade Organization, United Nations, International Monetary Fund and others. Conducting meetings with the local, national and international stakeholders of the country will prove to be beneficial for the overall tourism development. These interactions are considered to be some valuable tools in getting the concerns, opinions, impressions as well as expectations of the key industry, in regards to the strategy of Cyprus Tourism.

Meetings must be organized along with the key stakeholders in order to assess the feasibility and relevancy of the strategies to be implemented. Moreover, interviews with the airline authorities and tour operators of the country will enable the planner to jot down the opportunities and areas of improvement. The strategic plan needs to be implemented with the consent of the stakeholders in order to assess the improvement areas. Moreover, details on the strategic initiatives and targets will make the destination management plan more effective and efficient.

Thus, it can be stated that the major functions of the destination management planner is to present the strategies and actions in much detailed manner. These plans must be implemented along with the stakeholders’ involvement and the budget being prepared and lastly, the time frame of the implementation. The economic impact of the overall plan describes the impact of tourism development on the environmental and socio economic systems of the country, in its upcoming years. Moreover, it also reveals the contribution of the tourism to the Gross Development Product of Cyprus, in near future. Identification of the stakeholders to be engaged in the destination management plan will help the country to gain competitive as well as comparative advantages (Boukas and Ziakas 2016).

Conclusion

The two major stakeholders of the tourism industry of Cyprus are the tour operators and the airlines. Conducting an interview with them will help the destination management planner to gain valuable insights in order to understand the current situation of the country. According to the stakeholders’ analysis, the two major aspects which threaten the overall sustainability of the tourism of Cyprus are the air capacity and seasonality. Firstly, the higher seasonality of the tourism activities may lead to the serious operational flaws in the overall tourism system of Cyprus. 

These factors include the overuse of the equipments and infrastructures during the summer as well as the underutilization during the time of winter. These may affect the overall profitability of the business and thus, hamper employment stability. In addition to this, the over-exploitation of the saturation and attractions of the tourist spots and destinations, also affects Cyprus to a huge extent. The over-consumption of electricity, water and other utilities, pressure on the country’s population, negatively impacts the image of the destination. Secondly, the air capacity also remains inadequate especially during the winter season. Despite the remarkable progresses in the recent years, these factors hamper the tourism development of the country to a huge extent (Grobelna and Marciszewska 2016).

These negative factors represent the obstacles and stop the country from making progresses, in terms of penetrating into the new markets as well as segments. Moreover, as per the analysis of the stakeholders, there are several other elements, which contribute to the poor perceptions of the future viabilities of the country’s tourism model. On the other hand, there are some positive attributes as well, which can drive the sustainable model of tourism. The major elements which threaten the country’s tourism model as well as the positive factors have allowed the tourist destination to keep its competitiveness and attractiveness over the time.

This part of the report discusses about the major positive and negative aspects of the country according to the stakeholders. The negative aspects are the lack of planning on the national level. The regulatory framework is outdated that is licensing as well as rating. Moreover, the country lacks accountable, facilitating and leading system of governance. In addition to this, the lack of national quality standards also affects the credibility of Cyprus. Insufficient as well as deficient strategic marketing strategies have led to product quality degradation and undifferentiating branding (Nunkoo, Smith and Ramkissoon 2013).

The positive factors according to the stakeholders are the advantageous positioning of geography. The country has one of the best climates at the Mediterranean and excellent cultural as well as natural attractions. Moreover, the place has multicultural environment, financial and human resources. In addition to this, extensive experiences and well tourism business management will help the country to develop its customer base. Furthermore, the country has strong road network, good facilities of accommodation and highest number of ‘Blue Flag’ beaches.

Implementation of the recommendations can give rise to some major challenges, which will negatively impact Cyprus, to a huge extent. The successful implementation of these strategies requires setting up of a number of tourism organizations as well as specialized bodies and strengthening the ones that exist. The implementation of the strategies may involve monitoring and administering the strategic development as well as its execution. However, without these factors, the country may face some severe challenges. Moreover, the coordination between the government officials and other bodies is immensely necessary; otherwise some major issues may occur. In the implementation phase, Cyprus needs to organize its efforts for preparing the impending growth of the overall economy.

This particular phase is very investment intensive as well as laborious and therefore, particular attention needs to be given in order to establish the entities of the government officials. Moreover, these factors will help in preparing the groundwork for the implementation of various projects as well as initiatives. The key areas of investments will be the experiences, tourism infrastructures as well tourist accommodation projects. In addition to this, there are some challenges in doing business at Cyprus, as well. The country’s complex regulatory business environment can prove to be challenging for the businessmen to conduct their business there. However, Cyprus has sophisticated infrastructure, strategic location, highly educated work force, favorable tax system, which helps in offering a great deal for the businesses.

The country has a free market, modern and service based economy which gives the domestic businessmen and the international investors the confidence to prosper, grow and invest. The tertiary sectors of the services is regarded as the backbone of Cyprus’ economy and along with the higher income per capita, consumers’ market is specifically strong. However, the strong consumerism level as well as a healthy Gross Development Product of the country has not impacted the overall expenses of doing businesses there. For the success of the businesses, it needs proper assistance as well as support from the local teams; those are familiar with the climate of business.

Therefore, starting a tourism business in the country can prove to be a challenge as of now; however, properly navigating the business climate of the area can help in mitigating those challenges. Firstly, the companies need to get initial approvals from Registrar of Companies. In addition to this, articles and a memorandum must be prepared after getting approvals and submitted to the relevant departments. Moreover, the companies also need to deal with the construction permits, get infrastructure and electricity and pay taxes, in order to succeed. The major challenges faced by the country can lead to financial crisis, which in turn will mar the destination spots.

These cases require proper attention and the governing bodies need to address the issues in an adequate manner. Continuous assessment as well as monitoring of the situations can offer adequate and timely solutions. In addition to this, the government needs to recognize the crisis in more efficient, yet effective manner. The government official’s engagement into these activities in procedural as well as structural reforms will help in developing capacities and skills (Nunkoo and Ramkissoon 2016).

Moreover, developing the under-resourced areas can call for additional investments, which involves the financial sector. The government officials need to act beyond the fiscal targets for re-establishing the trust in the overall economy and also to ensure increase in the competitiveness. It is immensely important to implement the laws on the non-performing loans in an effective and efficient manner. In the interests of social, sustainability as well as environmental policies needs to be considered in the comprehensive manner, which eliminates excessive and persistent emphasis on the financial and business interests. The policies of the business should favor the broader benefits instead.

Improvement in the under-resourced areas needs some investments and the government officials should take these factors into consideration. Over the long terms, the sustainable recovery will be only possible by efficient mechanisms, which will give warranty to the abilities of law enforcements and greater transparency. Efficient as well as effective oversights of the corporate governance by clear monitoring mechanisms and measures are still highly needed. Moreover, enforcement of the provisions of amended laws on the election and party funding is immensely important for the assessment of abilities in order to ensure transparency. Therefore, on this basis it can be said that the transparency of the factors is highly needed in most of the areas, which include media ownership as well.

Therefore, attainment of the goals and objectives would require the assistance of the government officials in order to accelerate the works. This would also assist in developing the strategic planning capacity and ensure effective implementation of the policy systems. The establishment of the tourism industry along with clear instructions from the government bodies will enable swift progress. Hence, it can be said that to speed the overall process, the existing capacities as well as skills need to be adequately addressed and re-assessed, taking into consideration the economic condition of Cyprus (Kasim et al. 2014).

Conclusion

To conclude, Cyprus, officially known as the Republic of Cyprus is the most populous island of the Mediterranean. It is located at the west of Syria and Lebanon, south of Turkey, northeast of Israel, southeast of Greece and north of Egypt.  The small island has age old history and culture, rich in wonderful experiences just waiting to be enjoyed, by the tourists. The country provides its visitors with an ample amount of opportunities to experience something more exciting, interesting and new things that include events, customs, activities as well as places. The country has more things to offer to its customers that are more unique as well as special. The tourists can go to the official website of Cyprus and tailor their visit by selecting the experiences as well as interests, which suit them the best.

Cyprus has some beautiful and magnificent under-rated and under-developed places, which has so much to offer to its tourists. Blessed with nature’s beauty of best palette, the scenes and scenery of the place unfolds across rolling mountains, glittering coasts, fragrant forests as well as rugged headlands. Moreover, from the warm shores of mainland to the cool and unspoiled oasis of Troodos nature lovers, mountain range, photographers, explorers and artists, all will delight the tourists in meeting their expectation levels. In addition to this, there are several places best for the hikers, who can grab their hiking boots and own trainers to explore the dense forests.

The small island, along with the long history as well as rich culture has much more to offer to its visitors. It makes the place one of the oldest civilians of the Mediterranean. This is evidenced by various fascinating museums, galleries, monuments and cultural sites. The country is situated on the crossroads of three specific continents that is Africa, Asia and Europe. In addition to this, the unique positioning of the country’s geography has played an immensely important part in the turbulent past, since antiquity. Rich in its culture, heritage and islands, Cyprus has much more to offer its visitors with.

The country needs to develop its under-rated areas in order to maximize and enhance the experiences of the visitors, increase their numbers and thereby, increase the economic potential of hospitality as well as tourism within the area. In addition to this, the report discusses about the comparative as well as competitive advantages of the place. Moreover, it identifies the market segments and the development of the resources, keeping into consideration the current size as well as potential growth. Last but not the least; the report also identifies the regional, national and international stakeholders, who can be engaged with in order to enhance the potential success of the destination management plan. Additionally, the major challenges of the region has also been discussed, which may result after implementing the recommendations.

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