Politicians recently who argued that Cyprus Tourism Organization has failed have been directed at House finance committee members, not Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides, as explained by board chairman Angelos Loizou on Wednesday.
Besides, at Phileleftheros, a local daily on Wednesday published a cover story which says that Loizou was “photographing” Petrides without naming him in a letter to parliament. However, while talking on a state radio on Wednesday morning, the CTO chief discharged any such accusations against Petrides of undermining the organization. To quote Loizou, ‘something must be wrong with our camera, because we couldn’t possibly have photographed the one man who is trying to upgrade the CTO. We sent this letter to parliament, as we routinely do in our effort to brief MPs of our actions and any given issues, so that they are properly informed of the actions and results the CTO has undertaken.’
As per Loizou, members of the House finance committee, which is having an ongoing discussion on a government proposal to generate three under-secretariats, one of which would reinstate the CTO as the most proficient authority in terms of tourism strategy, have tried their best to argue in favor of the new departments by trashing the CTO. The letter was kind of an effort to refer previous communications to parliament listing in detail the CTO’s achievements in recent years.
To quote him, ‘it seems that finance committee members may be not as knowledgeable about the CTO’s role and contribution to the recent turnaround of the tourism industry, which has had a record year, as their counterparts on the House tourism committee, with whom we have traditionally engaged.’
