CYPRUS: Anastasiades appoints hotelier to head Tourism Junior Ministry

President Nicos Anastasiades has announced that Savvas Perdios, Chief Operating Officer at Louis Hotels, has been appointed as the Deputy Minister for Tourism, a new post created from the restructuring of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation from a semi-state organisation to a government department.

The change, one of three junior ministries announced by Anastasiades almost six years ago, means that the tourism responsibilities will be removed from the overburdened portfolio of the Minister of Energy, Tourism, Commerce and Industry, with Perdios reporting directly to the president.

Due to the constitutional limitation of Cabinet posts, the Deputy Minister for Tourism and the Deputy Minister for Shipping, headed by Natasa Pilidou, a new post created in March 2018, do not having voting powers in the Council of Ministers, but participate equally. The third junior ministry, for Innovation, has yet to be announced.

Perdios, 37, widely reported in the local media as being the son of Louis Hotels CEO Jason Perdios, was presented as having work experience with “large international organisations in the tourism industry” and is a finance graduate from the University of Warwick as well as in hotel management. He will be sworn into office on Wednesday, January 2, with the launch of the new Deputy Ministry for Tourism.

Government Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said that Perdios will undertake the implementation of the ‘National Strategy for Tourism’ through the necessary policy decisions, planning and general supervision of the tourism sector. Variations of the ‘national strategy’ have been on the agenda of all past Trade ministers and CTO boards, with none implemented to date.

President Anastasiades seems to have reneged on his pledge to enhance female presence in the Cabinet and narrow the gender gap, as some leading women in the tourism sector had been favoured for the top job in charge of tourism. Of the ten cabinet posts, only the Labour and Transport Ministers are women, Zeta Emilianidou and Vassiliki Anastasiades.