InTouch Magazine Articles Archive

Issue 15, February 2008

Larnaka 21

By Gina Coleman.

Officials from the Ministry of Interior, Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO), Larnaka Municipality and the Larnaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry spoke with one voice when they recently told their audience that Larnaka must regenerate itself, re-brand and re-market its new image if it wants to prosper and also develop its tourism market!

It’s not a new message: those of us who live in the town – and love it – have heard it all before, but this time there’s a degree of seriousness absent in the past; and the new availability of EU funding helps too!
In mid January, a host of speakers and delegates from the UK and Belgium as well as Cyprus converged on a new conference centre in the Ayios Lazarus area of Larnaka. The centre is called ‘Apothekis’ and if you haven’t heard of it, that’s not too surprising, because finishing touches were still being put to the construction the night before the conference – called ‘Larnaka 21 – Managing the Future’. [Apothikes is delightful, and has given the town a new conference centre, wedding reception and party venue and a focal point for community events of all kinds – but that’s another story!]
The aim of the conference, organised on behalf of Larnaka Municipality, was to look at the experience of other countries in urban renewal and use that experience to benefit the plans for the regeneration of Larnaka town centre and the ‘resurrection’ of the town’s role as a centre for leisure and tourism. [Resurrection perhaps being the appropriate word here, as the conference was in St Lazarus!]
Soon – in addition to a brand new airport – Larnaka will have a new linked Marina and Cruise-ship Port; new town-centre hotels; a redevelopment of the Dhekelia Road ‘Industrial Area’; three new pedestrianised squares; a new seafront between the Castle and the Fishing Harbour on the way to Makenzy beach; and a new golf course. And that’s just for starters!

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