August 2010 - Posts
Thirty eight Cypriot Architects will represent Cyprus to the big feast of Architecture. From the 29th of August until the 21st of November, Venice will once again open its doors to the world of Architecture.
For the Cypriot Architects, this event has always been a very important one but this year gains a special meaning since Cyprus celebrates is first 50 years of independence.
The work of the 38 architects will be in Venice not only as architectural art but also as symbol of reconstruction and resurrection. Cyprus has gone through wars and oppressions, the decades of 50ies 60ies and 70ies have been very rough. The Cypriot people managed to resurrect and gain the respect of the fellow Europeans who agreed to let them in the EU in 2004.
Cypriot Architecture went trough many ups and downs.
Cyprus has suffered catastrophes such as earthquakes (in the 1953 earthquake more than 150 villages and towns were affected ), the war of 1974 and other disasters in earlier years. The abandonment of the rural areas and the emigration to other countries also contributed to the deterioration of the local architecture.
Today, Cypriot architects are giving us their vision of the future thought their work.
Despite that Cyprus today has a chaotic urban structure when it comes to the main towns and cities, despite that the uncontrollable real estate development of the last years created ugliness, architecture is still a huge heritage for Cyprus. The hidden corner of old Lefkosia, the aristocratic houses of Lemesos, the Neo Classic Center of Pafos, the colonial buildings of Larnaka, the terraces of cliff hanging villages of Troodos are defiantly Mediterranen Treasures for the Architecture spotters.
Enjoy the work of those 38 selected architects and join them to
commemorate the 50 years of Cyprus Independence. 
The globalisation, something that we learned to read and pronounce the last 10 years has a defiantly a very strong presence in tourism. Globalisation brought Multiculturalism and Diversity. Terms that entered our lives for good.
In Cyprus, for many years the Cypriots we managed to offer Authentic Cypriot Hospitality to our visitors with our own human recourses. Today in 2010 this hospitality is offered by Polish, Bulgarian, Russian, Romanian even Indian or Bangladeshi people. This diversity is now a fact, a fact that we should take advantage and develop new values of multicultural hospitality where cultures and people meet.
For this years World Tourism Day the World tourism Organisation has decided to focus on the world’s cultural wealth and the important role sustainable tourism plays in revitalizing local traditions and making them flourish as they cross other cultures.
We believe this is an opportunity for all Cypriots who work in tourism and live of tourism to react and embrace this occasion so as to evaluate the services they offer and appreciate their local traditions and help spread them first among our fellow foreign co-workers. This local knowledge and local understanding can only be a benefit for all.
It is a benefit for the Cypriot since he will understand much more his/her foreign fellow worker, it is a benefit for the foreign workers since the will have the opportunity to come into direct contact wit the country that accommodate and employees them, understand it better and see the similarities with their own country that believe are much more than we think. Last but not least, probably the biggest benefit is for the end customer who will be properly attended.
The 16th of August 1960, Archbishop Makarios III representing the Greek Cypriots and Dr. Fazil Küçük representing the Turkish Cypriots have signed the independence of Cyprus from the British Empire.
Since then the history of Cyprus has not been very easy. Nevertheless, tourism has grown spectacularly basically due to private initiative of the then young tourism entrepreneurs.
People like Louis Loizou, founder of Louis Group, Yiannis Skyrianides, founder of the Cyprus Hotel Association, Renos Solomides, hotelier and ex Minister of Commerce and Industry, Katsellis Family, owners of the emblematic Dome Hotel in Kyrenia, the poet Costas Montis, the first president of the Tourism Counsil, which has later been transformed to the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, and many, many others who believed that tourism could be the major source of income for the Cypriot economy.
50 years after our Independence, we look into the future with perplexity, questioning and wondering if the present model of tourism development in Cyprus is a model that assures the future of tourism and the future of a healthy economy.
The global and deep financial crisis has made us understand that we cannot continue with practises of the last half century. The tourism pioneers of the 60’s have dared to change the agricultural economy of Cyprus into a service economy. Today is our duty to move towards Experiential Economy and accompany our visitors to their travel experience before even they land and after they arrive back home.
The use of new technologies, investment in training, collaborative projects, local management of tourism and return to our traditions, preservation and regeneration of our natural environment, sustainable resource management and last but not least extreme customer awareness and care should be the ingredients of the new strategic and action plan of the Cyprus Tourism in general.
The booklet below is a document created by the Cyprus Hotel Association and is document that shows the history of Tourism in Cyprus even before the independence.
Click here to see and download the E-Booklet