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Some days ago, I have had the occasion to have a very sincere and in depth talk with the newly assigned Acting Director General of the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO) Mr. Lefkos Phylactides.
Mr. Phylactides, age 54, before his new appointment, held the position of the Director of the Department of Tourist Services of the Organization. He is a graduate of the University of Surrey, UK, in Hotel and Tourism Management from where he has also been awarded a M.Sc. degree in Tourism Planning and Development. He is Chairman of the Independent Committee for Certification of the Cyprus Certification Company, a member of the Air Transport Licensing Authority of the Ministry of Communications and Works, a member of the Hotels Committee of the CTO and a member of the Advisory Committee of the University of Nicosia.
During our talk I have realized once again that he has a very practical and down to earth view of Tourism in Cyprus. Lefkos is very much aware that he is undertaking his new role in the Organization in difficult times. He faces this as the biggest professional challenge of his life.
“The environment of the tourism industry is as intensively competitive as ever and the continuous improvement and renewal of the whole spectrum of Cyprus’s tourist product is, respectively, an uncompromising necessity.”
Mr. Phylactides has a very clear idea of how Cyprus should face the new era in tourism and him being a technocrat gives very big importance to solid and coordinated steps that make sense. “When it comes to our strategic steps, I am an avid supporter of the integrated, systemic approach and I will put all effort so that the foundation of this approach lies in our new national tourism strategy.”
Coherence and coordination are the two fundamental axes of a new strategy, he emphasized on his will to work hard in order to achieve better results based on teamwork of the public and the private sector in tourism. “I expect our actions to be coherent and coordinated at both policy and action levels, taking into account the interdependencies and interrelationships of the tourist economy at a national, regional and local level and ensuring the commitment and involvement from the public and private sectors.”
Lefkos Phylactides is a man of action and at the same time he is very sensitive to the global customer experience in Cyprus. He looks ahead and sees only positive results in any actions taken. His optimism is contagious, his positive energy and his straight forward way of facing the upcoming challenges made me think that a new era in Cyprus Tourism has started.
“Every action, even every daily operation, will be accordingly linked with a broader set of strategic initiatives and will be targeted towards the significant enrichment of our visitors’ experiences, the further development of the tourist infrastructure and the achievement of higher quality levels in all aspects of the tourist product.
Since Cyprus, as an island destination, is inevitably highly dependent on air transport, we are also determined to improve its accessibility and this is why we are focusing on the introduction of new flights from our target markets, the increase of flight frequency and the improvement of the relevant time schedules.
As for the majority of tourist destinations, the impact of seasonal variation in demand is one of our major concerns. Besides the aforementioned actions, we are ready to implement additional, structured plans in order to specifically address the issue of seasonality and successfully extend the tourist season. It is my personal belief that Cyprus has all the potential to be gradually established as a top-performing destination for all four seasons.
Being highly optimistic about the future of our tourism industry and confident that, through hard work and broad commitment, we can successfully achieve our goals, I can guarantee that CTO’s actions will be conducted within a general framework of participatory cooperation, mutual understanding and reciprocal communication with all tourism stakeholders.”
After this conversation I am more convinced that Tourism needs to be faced as if it was a natural recourse, only then we will have the certainty that all of us that work and leave from tourism directly or indirectly have a promising future in Cyprus.
I am confident that, with people like Lefkos Phylactydes taking the lead, we can finally find the right track, but, as an old Greek saying says, “One Swallow alone is not enough to bring Spring”, meaning that this is not an one man show, people like Lefkos Phylactides need to be surrounded and supported strongly by the private sector in one hand, and mostly by the rest of the public administration on the other. Customer experience is what at the end of the day really matters.
Petros Mavros
Director of Avantless LTD
Reporting from Cyprus for Travel Daily News International
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
