CYPRUS: CTO promotes Cyprus tourism sustainability

The five year collaboration between Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO), Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Initiative (CSTI) and The Travel Foundation of UK, is a step towards ensuring Cyprus’ tourism sustainability.

The CTO and The Travel Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding on June 16th 2010. The agreement between the parties marks the beginning of a 5-year collaboration to make Cyprus the first ‘sustainable’ destination.
The priority of this collaboration will lie with projects that include, inter alia, developing minimum standards for the accommodation industry, a plan for sustainable development of golf courses, planting scheme for the tourist industry, a renewable energy programme using waste from the accommodation industry, developing a composting scheme with a group of accommodation providers in a resort, a campaign to prevent littering in municipalities and generally developing rural enterprise.

CTO Director General Marios Hannides presented on Tuesday at a press conference, the programme of the Memorandum. He noted that in this very competitive environment and under the pressure of the economic crisis, the choice for a sustainable development with a long term planning is a one-way choice.
Hannides referred to the three programmes of the collaboration, which will be implemented during the first two years. The first programme concerns beach cleaning, the second concerns the preparation of criteria for sustainability for hotel industry and the third programme is about solid waste management in hotel industry.