Bringing together the region’s airlines, airports and tourism authorities, the April 22 – 24 event took place in Bilbao, Spain.

Maria Kouroupi, senior manager, aviation development, Hermes, commented, “The most important element resulting from the contacts we have made at Routes Europe 2018, is that the growth tourism trend recorded during the recent years seems to be established and stabilised.

“We are very pleased because our long-term efforts to improve the connectivity of Cyprus are fruitful and the selection of Cyprus in airline programmes is now a conscious choice.”

Hermes and CTO also noted the upward tourism arrival trend already recorded already for the winter season was anticipated to continue with positive prospects for the upcoming and 2019 summer seasons.

Cyprus remains popular despite the recovery of competing tourist destinations such as Turkey and Egypt, they noted, adding opportunities to enrich the island’s aviation connectivity with new destinations, including France, Italy, Poland and Baltic countries, had also been identified.