Cyprus plans winter push

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.”