.
Imagine an advertising campaign, “Cyprus blessed – from St Paul to Pope Benedict”, and the tremendous impact this would have on attracting hundreds if not thousands of new pilgrim-tourists to Cyprus.
And then imagine the short-sighted people in charge of the pitiful state of the Cyprus economy who are naïve to think that by slashing the government’s budget (but not the civil service payroll) this island will miraculously remain afloat.
Although the cutbacks on tourism promotion are seen as minimal, the absence of a far larger budget over the years is the main reason why we cannot attract more tourists to our beach resorts and special-interest attractions, such as archaeological sites and museums, cultural festivals, cycling and nature paths, wine routes and agrotourism.
The Cyprus Tourism Organisation has been plagued by decades of infighting among its high-ranking officers, while the board has become a playing field for political parties to place (mostly) incompetent people unrelated to the tourism industry.
How, then, can the CTO be expected to demand a bigger budget while campaigning at a local level to clean up the country and make it the quality destination we have heard so much about but seen so little of?
The pontifical visit in June should be highlighted before and after as a great event for Cyprus, a blessing even, despite the raving and ranting of a few extreme “believers” who refuse to abandon the Mediaeval ages and would even crusade for their own version of an Inquisition.
This is the first time that any Catholic pope has visited Cyprus, which follows the thawing in recent years of relations between the Vatican and the Greek Orthodox church, while the Archbishop Chrysostomos II’s diplomatic visit to the Holy See three years ago helped to improve these ties even further.
The start of the “pastoral” visit will begin with a pilgrimage to St Paul’s pillar, where the apostle was supposed to have been flogged. Such recognition from Pope Benedict XVI carries religious and historical significance – in effect, it takes Paphos out of the tourist guides’ map and places it on the world map of Christian holy sites. And this is how it should be promoted, while the local authorities improve facilities at museums and help preserve archaeological finds, be they from the Neolithic to the Byzantine ages, or from the Lusignan to the Venetian conquerors.
So, if the CTO cannot do it, then the Paphos tourism promotion board should go all out on its own and elevate itself to the international site it deserves to be.
