outstanding environmental stan- the United Kingdom. He previously worked in the health and telecomdards. munications industries, and sees ynergy between tourism honesty and hard work as the key elements to success.
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and foreign investment
Along with the highly developed financial services sector, tourism is the largest industry in the economy of Cyprus. However, Englezos sees the development of the market for Russian visitors not just as an end in itself, but also as a means of developing the longer term potential of Cyprus as an important destination for Russian investment. Cyprus is becoming an increasingly popular choice for the purchase of holiday homes, and the CTO is giving particular emphasis to researching the impact of this trend to ensure that it occurs in a sustainable way that is not detrimental to local needs.
The Cyprus Tourism Organization overseas the industry, operating information offices and inspectorates in every city and town, and promoting Cyprus on international exhibitions, conferences and seminars. It provides information to the media and informs hotel operators and other service providers on trends and opportunities in world markets.
Tourism is strategically important to the economy of Cyprus, providing more than 15 percent of gross domestic product and 30 percent of foreign currency earnings. The sector has been vital to the recovery of the national economy since the major collapse that occurred followbout Mr. Panos ing the Turkish invasion of the north Englezos and the CTO of the island in 1974. The Cyprus Tourism Organization was initiated Mr. Englezos has striven to at that time, and delivered the govachieve new successes in a range of ernment strategy of a tourism-led Cypriot sectors since returning to economic recovery. Cyprus after studying economics in
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