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The Cyprus airports operator Hermes should be commended for its marketing approach to promote Cyprus products at its own shops within Larnaca and Paphos airports. The idea is to fill all the shelves with unique goods that would also double up as ideal souvenirs from the Island of Love, be they packed food or wine, gift ideas, or even locally designed jewellery of value.
Twice during the year the hosts will organise special promotional events to coincide with the local festivals of the famed sweet Commandaria dessert wine and the high-spirited Zivania, while the 400-or-so goods on display and available for sale will also enter the competition to choose the ‘Best of Cyprus’ products – from the halloumi to the hiromeri, home-style sweets and handicraft.
But will this help promote the ‘Made in Cyprus’ brand that regular visitors have grown used to and look for when they return home?
The Ministry of Trade should take the whole concept a stage further and organise annual events that will seek to identify and reward all that is uniquely Cyprus in quality, taste, manufacture and presentation. A lot of these (and not just a selected few) should also be chosen to represent Cyprus at international events and fora, directly or indirectly promoting the island as a tourist and even business destination. We have been given a golden opportunity to revive the long lost ‘Cypriot hospitality’ that basically meant warm service with a smile.
Short-stay tourists and long-term visitors want something different when they go on holiday. They seek out value for money in destinations, the quality of service and the richness of the entertainment they receive.
Cyprus may be an expensive destination but it could regain its past reputation as the land of fun and entertainment, with good value food and wine, offering ease of mind to the holidaymaker that is now searching for budget vacations more then ever before.
Cypriot products are the best advertising this island could ever hope for and every incentive as well as assistance should be provided to large and small manufacturers who have something good to show. The sooner the Ministry of Trade (and Tourism) realises this and helps deserving enterprises, the quicker will we see Cyprus recovering its lost numbers in tourists – preferable the ones that will spend more here and come back year after year to spend more.
