Tourism is closely tied to national stability, with arrivals down 6.5 per cent, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the presentation of the new development tourism strategy of the Municipality of Paralimni-Deryneia, Christodoulides outlined the effects of the ongoing geopolitical challenges in the Middle East and Europe, emphasising that these had inevitably impacted tourism on the island.

“What is being presented today is a municipality’s response to new challenges and the need to demonstrate just how unique our tourism product is,” he said.

He went on to say that the tourism branch was directly related to the country’s stability and credibility, stressing the need for reforms and plans to tackle future challenges.

“I am not downplaying the situation, but we are optimistic. Over the past two years, our tourism sector has achieved record-breaking performance in terms of both arrivals and revenue, demonstrating, among many other things, its resilience, adaptability, and quality,” he said.

In light of his upcoming visit to India, Christodoulides highlighted that establishing direct flights from India to Cyprus is a priority.

“It recently started with Greece. This is a huge market of a billion population that we want to exploit and one of the main topics of discussion during the two days I will be in Mumbai and New Delhi concerns Cypriot tourism and attracting tourists from India,” he said.