On January 2, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades swore in the country’s first dedicated tourism minister. Savvas Perdios is officially known as deputy minister for tourism. He will take over all responsibilities of the Cyprus Tourism Organization, which will close.
Perdios was formerly chief operations officer at Louis Hotels SA, managing 25 resorts in Cyprus and Greece, reported Bloomberg. He studied finance and accounting at the University of Warwick in the U.K. and international hospitality management at the Lausanne Hotel School in Switzerland.
“We’ve demanded the creation of a tourism ministry for decades given its importance for the economy,” said Harris Loizides, president of the Cyprus Hotel Association. “The new ministry will have to tackle many issues including new legislation for the classification of hotels and implementing the country’s new tourism strategy.”
Travel and tourism accounted for 22.3 percent of the Cyprus economy in 2017, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Revenue from tourism rose 2.3 percent in the first nine months of 2018 to 2.27 billion euros (US$2.6 billion).
Perdios comes on board just as Melco International Development is working to complete City of Dreams Mediterranean, which reportedly will be the largest integrated resort in the world when it opens in 2021. Melco’s local partner on the project is Cyprus Phassouri (Zahaki) Ltd.
