CYPRUS will more than triple its winter promotional
spend this year in a bid to grab a larger slice of the early-booking market for
2004.
Island tourism officials have pledged to recover lost
ground after seeing business hit by the Iraq war. Traditionally, Cyprus spends
£400,000 on promotions in the last quarter, but this year has earmarked £1.5
million for TV, press and trade advertising. For the first time it will also
run poster ads at train stations countrywide.
“We want to get winter business, but also a much
bigger share of the early market,” said Cyprus Tourism Organisation director
Orestis Rossides. “We lost a lot of early traffic this year and need to get it
back.”