The project “Heartland of Legends” promotes slow tourism and offers authentic experiences to visitors while it also encourages circular economy and sustainability, Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios said Thursday, in his presentation during a discussion in the framework of the 9th UNECE Ministerial Conference which takes place in Nicosia.

He told the Cyprus News Agency that this is an innovative project and during his presentation he noted that our country is becoming a destination that wants to promote local products and producers as well as quality trademarks that are presented through the Cypriot breakfast.

He also spoke of other projects such as Taste Cyprus, wine routes, Kommandaria routes etc.

Perdios said that the project “Heartland of legends” includes an authentic route of 3,000 kilometers with the aim of promoting our cultural heritage and developing tourism in rural and mountainous areas of the island. He stated that the project aims to offer authentic experiences to visitors and added that it had a great impact at today's presentation as it also promotes the goals of circular economy.

"We wanted to showcase the sustainability and respect we show towards mountainous and remote communities and the fact that this project simultaneously promotes young and female entrepreneurship, respects local producers and gives the visitor the opportunity to experience the authenticity of Cyprus", he noted.

Deputy Minister said that the presentation received very positive comments as it was said that this project is innovative and no other large country can easily copy it, because Cyprus is small and the authorities have the opportunity to get organized better and promote these routes.

He also told the participants that Cyprus as a tourist destination does not want to exaggerate with goals for arrivals and that our goal is to channel these tourists to many areas of the island and to promote winter tourism, adding that we are also interested in per capita spending and we have a more holistic approach.

Perdios also said in his presentation that Cyprus bans a wide range of plastics and that not many countries in Europe have done this.