Budget airline lift for Cyprus golf
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Golf in Cyprus ahs just received a major boost following budget airline Ryanair’s decision to make Paphos, Cyprus, one of its international hubs.
This news should especially benefit visitor numbers at Sir Nick Faldo’s ‘Mediterranean Masterpiece’, Eléa Golf Club, situated just 10 minutes from the airport, according to senior figures at the award-winning development.
Ryanair begins 14 new routes to and from Paphos in April and May, including services from London Stansted, Memmingen Munich, Frankfurt Hahn, Stockholm Skavsta and Oslo Rygge, and Elea forecasts that travelling golfers will form a healthy part of the estimated 600,000 people expected to use the new services every year.
Elea Estate Andreas Anastasiou, General Manager, said: “There is little doubt Eléa Golf Club, and the other golf courses in the Paphos area, will benefit from Ryanair’s impending new services. With 80 new flights a week being operated to and from Paphos we anticipate an increase in tourists wanting to play golf and both our location and reputation as Cyprus’ number one golf course positions us perfectly.”
Since opening in October 2010, Elea Estate has received a host of significant awards including being named one of the Top 10 New International Golf Courses of 2010 by golf.com; Best International Leisure Development 2011 and Best Golf Development in Europe 2011 at the prestigious International Property Awards.
Nasos Hadjigeorgiou, Tourism Manager for Paphos Regional Board of Tourism said: “Ryanair will play a special role in stimulating Cyprus’ European markets. Using the UK as an example, with four flights per week from Stansted to Paphos – an annual capacity of approximately 37,000 seats – this represents very positive news for the island and our golf developments, such as Eléa Estate.
“Ryanair’s new flights bring a new era to the way we promote tourism in Cyprus. For the last 30 years, 80-90% of our marketing was to the trade and only 10-20% to the final user. With thousands of air seats now available to end users via web-based booking systems, travellers can now individually and dynamically prepare their own trips to Cyprus.
“We will need to adapt the way we work to support this, by increasing our marketing and promotional activities direct to consumers.”
For further information about Eléa visit www.eleaestate.com, or telephone 00357 26 202001 (main switchboard).
The other three golf venues in the Paphos area are Aphrodite Hills, Tsada and Secret Valley.
