tourism

Septemberfest 2011

Cyprus Mail reports that a (hopefully) annual event is being organized first time this year in Nicosia. Inspired by the famous Octoberfest beer festival in Munich, Germany and, possibly, by Limassol Wine Festival, it should boost the Nicosia tourism a bit.

Six beer importing and producing companies will headline the festival, while customers will have the opportunity to choose from up to 49 different brands. Cyprus will be represented by its three local producing companies: KEO, Carlsberg and Leon, while 20 kiosks will be set up, with local pubs also participating.

Drinks, food, music, and a traditional in such cases funfair promise a lot of fun. Septemberfest starts today, Wednesday, September 21st and will continue until the end of the week, Sunday, September 25th. Entrance tickets are 5 EUR for adults, including free drink. Children can go in for free, but my guess is that they won’t be served any alcohol.

Hopefully by the next year the organizers will build up a website of some sort. Until then, there is a Facebook page that you can use to share photos and updates.

Ayia Napa is on fire … not literally of course

Cyprus Mail reports that Ayia Napa enjoys the best tourism year in the last 10 years.

A MASSIVE increase in tourism from Russia, more bookings from Britain and instability in the Middle East have helped kick-start a tourism boom in Ayia Napa which is being lauded as the best year in a decade.

It was announced yesterday that hotel occupancy in Ayia Napa and Protaras reached full capacity during the summer period with the added bonus of the holiday season stretching till November

.I’ve been to Ayia Napa and Protaras a couple of weeks ago and it was obvious that the situation with tourists there is very different from Limassol. Crowds and crowds of people on the streets, and everywhere. In Protaras it was even difficult to walk through in the evening – so many people around. When we drove back to Limassol, it was empty like a deserted island. Someone in the car suggested that that might be because we came back later in the evening, but I disagreed. It only takes about an hour and a half to drive from Protaras to Limassol. And there was no way all those people in Protaras could have disappeared from the streets in that time frame. Now, the newspaper confirms that the situation over there is indeed different.

World largest statue planned for Cyprus

Cyprus Mail reports:

WHAT MIGHT be the world’s tallest statue is being planned at a Russian backed development off the coast of Limassol.The 135 metre statue of an angel named The Kind Angel of the World is being planned at Monagrouli, about 20km from Limassol.The development is being planned by a Russian foundation, the International Club philanthropists and Patrons of Europe and will include a conference centre for 1,300 delegates, a ‘presidential’ convention centre for 300 delegates, a theatre and banqueting hall. It will also include a number of cafés and restaurants.

Just to put this thing into perspective:

The statue itself will rise 135 meters from the ground, and visitors will be taken up via lifts. Inside, or atop, the head of the Kind Angel a restaurant/café will offer spectacular views.Currently the world’s tallest statue is the Spring Temple Buddha in China, which is 128m high. New York’s Statue of Liberty is 93m high.

This sounds like an ambitious project which, when completed, will provided a much needed boost to Cyprus tourism.

What’s wrong with airlines today?

I think there is something wrong with airlines, their policies, and their price making. Here is one example. I was looking for the cheapest way to get from Larnaca, Cyprus to Athens, Greece on Saturday, September 25th, 2010. One of the lowest prices was offered by Aegean Airlines – 42 EUR for a one-way ticket. That sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Well, apparently that’s not the final price. The final price with all the taxes and such came up to 156.16 EUR.

What’s the point of listing the price, on top of which you’ll have to pay the “tax” and “fee”, and which will be almost doubled by those extras?

One thing I wouldn’t do

I don’t think I have a list of things that I wouldn’t do, but if I had, I’d put “never go swimming in the pool of Marina Bay Sands resort that just opened in Singapore” somewhere high up that list. As high up, in fact, as this pool.

I’m too afraid of heights, even if it said that the pool is perfectly safe.

But swimming to the edge won’t be quite as risky as it looks. While the water in the infinity pool seems to end in a sheer drop, it actually spills into a catchment area where it is pumped back into the main pool. At three times the length of an Olympic pool and 650ft up, it is the largest outdoor pool in the world at that height.

Update (July 29th, 2010): more pictures of this resort are available here.