Cyprus Being Offered As a New Holiday Destination for the UAE Traveller

Dubai, UAE - The Cyprus Tourism Organisation regional office based in Dubai is excited to announce the creation of its newsletter. “Our aim is to inform travel professionals and potential vacationers about Cyprus and to keep them updated on what the island has to offer,” says Director Vassilis Theocharides. The newsletter will be circulated on a monthly basis, in both Arabic and English.

With the holiday season well under way, more and more Gulf and Middle East based travellers are searching for new destinations for their vacations. Traditional European cities and the Far East still dominate travel trends this year. However, a new destination is being offered as an alternative: the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Situated in the south eastern Mediterranean basin, only 3 hours by plane from Dubai, Cyprus is now being offered as a new short-haul destination for the GCC. The island is already a favourite among European and Lebanese visitors, and has 2.5 million visitors per year, compared to its population of 800,000. “With breathtaking landscapes, sandy beaches, green pine covered mountains and a smiling populace, Cyprus is a fresh destination for GCC travellers. It’s a great alternative to long distance destinations for families, which can be tiring,” relates Theocharides, who heads the newly opened office of the Cyprus Tourism Organization in Dubai.

For travellers wishing to discover new destinations, Cyprus offers family-oriented holidays in the beauty of the Mediterranean. Cyprus is just a 3-hour flight away, through Cyprus Airways, Emirates and Gulf Air.

Gulf visitors can get a visa within two days at the Cyprus Trade Centre in Al Ghurair City in Dubai or at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Opera comes to Cyprus:
With a cultural heritage stretching back more than nine thousand years, cultural events like those taking place in front of the medieval castle of Kato Pafos look more than natural. Cyprus is littered with reminders of the
island's history. Relics from every era—Greek temples, Roman mosaics and 15th-century frescoes—influence the artists of today. Many villages specialize in a particular art form, and as you travel around Cyprus you'll
see pottery, silver and copperware, basket weaving, tapestry and Lefkara's famous lacework.

Paphos, the westernmost city in Cyprus, is hosting once more one of the regions most awaited cultural events, the Paphos Aphrodite Festival. Every year, Europe’s leading philharmonic orchestras are brought to the scenic Paphos castle for an enchanting night at the opera. Casual holiday clothes are traded for smart threads, and the town falls into the charm of an opera night.

This year, the Paphos Aphrodite Festival is presenting its seventh operatic production with Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, performed by the National Opera of Poland, opening on the 3rd of September. The Festival brings opera to the island every September, inviting locals and visitors to a night of magic, lavish scenery and gifted vocal artists. Following the successful staging of Aida (1999), Carmen (2000), Nabucco and Zorba the Greek (2001), Turandot (2002) and Tosca (2003), the organisers are offering yet another
unique experience with Verdi’s Rigoletto. This year’s operatic presentation will be enhanced by the introduction of super titles translating the libretto into Greek and English above the stage.

Around 7,500 tickets are available for the three nights. Interested parties should call immediately for tickets, which range from 150-350 Dirhams.

For further details, please call 00357 26-822218 or the Cyprus Tourism Office in Dubai at 04-2277637. You can also email tourism@cyprusme.com or visit the official Paphos Aphrodite Festival www.pafc.com site.

FORUM

Name of event: 1st International Sport Tourism Forum
Dates: 27th - 28th September 2005
Venue: Hilton Park Hotel Nicosia, Cyprus

Athos Ltd. is organising the 1st International SPORT TOURISM FORUM taking place this year in Cyprus on September 27th & 28th, 2005, at the Hilton Park Hotel Nicosia.

The target is to create a new yearly institution that offers a dynamic international platform for Sport Tourism professionals and academics to exchange their experience in the growing sector of worldwide tourism
development, exchange experience and create new business contacts. The conference will give the opportunity to examine all positive effects of Sport Tourism in each country such as receiving tourists desiring to combine their holidays with physical activity and recreation, organising sport excursions and camps for schools, welcoming amateur and professional athletes for training purposes and hosting major sport events, thus attracting tourists from around the world, enhancing and extending the traditional local tourism season.

The forum dates coincide with World Tourism Day, highlighting the remarkable growth of Sport Tourism and its incredible potential.

For further details please contact the organizers of the forum:

Athos Ltd.
tel.: (+30) 210 6627981
fax: (+30) 210 6624282
e-mail: ecoq@otenet.gr, info@ecoq.gr
(source: www.traveldailynews.com)

Photo: UAE travel agents visiting Cyprus during a familiarisation trip in March 2005 (photo taken in front of the Center of Artcraft in the capital Lefkosia)

Book of condolences in the Embassy (Doha) and the Trade Centre (Dubai)

VERY URGENT

This is to inform that a condolences book will open at the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus to commemorate the tragic loss of human life during the air crash of a Cyprus aircraft on 14 August 2005.

The Book of condolences will open on 16 August 2005 from 16:00 until 20:00 and on 17 August 2005 from 10:00 until 13:00 and from 16:00
until 20:00.

ΕΞΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΑ ΕΠΕΙΓΟΝ

Πληροφορούμε ότι στην Κυπριακή Πρεσβεία Ντόχας έχει ανοιχτεί βιβλίο συλλυπητηρίων για το τραγικό αεροπορικό δυστύχημα που συνέβη στις 14 Αυγούστου με μεγάλες ανθρώπινες απώλειες τόσο από Κύπρο όσο και από Ελλάδα.

Το βιβλίο θα είναι ανοιχτό στις 16 Αυγούστου 2005 από 16:00 μέχρι 20:00 και στις 17 Αυγούστου από 10:00 μέχρι 13:00 και 16:00 μέχρι 20.00.

Ο κατάλογος των θυμάτων βρίσκεται στην πρεσβεία όπου μπορείτε να απευθύνεστε για πληροφορίες.

16 August 2005

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS - DOHA
P.O. Box No: 24482
DOHA, QATAR
Tel.: (974) 4934390/1
Fax: (974) 4933087
E-mail: kyprosdoha@qatar.net.qa

From the Cyprus Trade Centre

VERY URGENT

This is to inform that a condolence book will open at the Cyprus Trade Centre (Al Ghurair Centre, Office Tower, Office 635, Deira - Dubai), to commemorate the tragic loss of human life during the air crash of aCyprus aircraft on 14 August 2005.

The Book of condolences will open on 16 August 2005 from 08:00 until16:00 and on 17 August 2005 from 10:00 until 16:0016 August 2005

Greek Valley Becomes a Hellish Scene

GRAMMATIKO, Greece (AP) - Charred bodies, tattered luggage and smoldering debris lay scattered among the pine trees in a scenic Greek valley Sunday after a Helios Airways flight slammed into a mountainside, killing everyone on board.

The plane - carrying 121 people, more than a third of them children - broke into at least three pieces. Acrid smoke filled the air. Still intact, the plane's tail section, emblazoned with an ancient Greek symbol of the sun,
rested on a dirt road.

Constantinos Michas, a resident of this town near the ancient city of Marathon, was one of the first people on the scene.

``I took my car and went straight to the mountain. ... I saw about 80 dead bodies, some were children,'' he said. ``There were some body parts but most were just as their mother made them.''

As police cordoned off part of the crash sites with bright orange tape, firefighting planes and helicopters swooped overhead to battle a brush fire started by the crash, which rekindled at the site throughout the day.

One witness described the instant the Boeing 737 smashed into the hillside, flanked by two F-16 fighter jets sent to intercept the passenger plane after it failed to respond to radio signals.

``We saw some fighter jets flying very low and after a few minutes we heard a very loud noise and saw pieces of the plane flying in the air,'' said Spyros Papachristou.

The crash occurred on the eve of a main religious holiday in Greece and Cyprus - a public holiday devoted to the Virgin Mary. A number of black-robed Greek Orthodox Christian were on the scene.

``There is wreckage everywhere,'' Grammatiko Mayor George Papageorgiou said. ``Things here are very difficult, they are indescribable.''

Ambulances relayed bodies to Grammatiko, 25 miles north of Athens. Crash scene investigators wearing surgical masks said most bodies appeared to be intact with some badly burnt.

In Cyprus, President Tassos Papadopoulos declared three days of official mourning. In Greece, Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis returned to Athens from a holiday on the Aegean island of Tinos.

Source:
Associated Press Writers Elena Becatoros and Derek Gatopoulos
14 August 2005
Photo by Associated Press