The Evolution of Tourism Planning in Cyprus: Will Recent Changes Prove Sustainable

Abstract

The concept of sustainable tourism has ostensibly caught the attention of both government and industry the world over and Cyprus has been no exception.
Following several years of rapid and sometimes excessive development particularly in coastal areas, the Cyprus Tourist Organisation and the Government have taken
steps to try to slow down development and to take a more informed and planned approach to industry development. Recent actions include the creation of a new
Town and Country Planning Law (1990) and National Tourism Strategy (1990) initially designed to control the scale and style of future tourism growth, in the name of a
more sustainable industry. This paper will show, however, that despite all the Government's good intentions, it has not been tourism per se which has caused
problems in the past, but rather the lack of enforcement of rules and regulations already in place, designed to guide the development of tourism along a more
sustainable path. The paper concludes that without the more rigorous application of its planning guidelines, the future development of tourism may faff well short of that
intended in the government's plans and policies.