In a move that will serve to bring in more economic revenue to Cyprus, the island nation has appointed its first ever tourism minister.
Savvas Perdios, former hotel executive is all set to be sworn in as the first ever deputy minister for tourism.
The move is part of its strategy to help develop the nation’s tourism sector, which is by far its biggest, and replace the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO), a 50-year-old organization which has so far singlehandedly overseen the tourism sector.
The CTO has been highly criticized for being “too slow” on account of its lack of legislative powers. The tourism ministry aims to correct this with better improvements and more power.
With the tourism sector going stronger by the day, it only makes sense to have an body that is dedicated to its development, and has more power than its predecessor.
There are a few commentators however, who doubt the potential of the ministry. The author of an editorial in the Cyprus Mail, for instance, has stated his lack of confidence, saying that the deputy ministry might not be turn out to be efficient in taking decisions and implementing policies after all, given the ever-changing conditions in the tourism market.
Such a line of criticism was also echoed in the local Financial Mirror, where it was stated the ministry might just end up seeing the same fate as the CTO, given the restrictive nature and anti-progressive “civil service” mentality of the government.
