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Cyprus Offers Generous Incentive to Attract Meetings and Events

September 21, 2026

Cyprus’ Ministry of Tourism has launched a new incentive it hopes will draw more meetings and events, especially during the island’s off-peak season.

At the center of Cyprus’ National Tourism Strategy 2035 is a plan to attract more, and larger, conferences, incentives and other corporate events, especially during the island’s winter season. The strategy includes offering corporate meeting and event planners up to €35,000 to book anything from a traditional business conference to meetings, incentive trips, product launches and exhibitions within a four-year window, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Kostas Koumis said in a recent statement. Association, academic and non-profit groups can qualify for up to €25,000. The exact amount a group can qualify for will depend on factors such as total room nights booked, as well as when and where the event is scheduled, though the baseline qualifications are that at least three-quarters of the group must come from abroad and that the group participants venture outside of the meeting venue instead of solely staying within their host hotel.

The ability to lock in the incentive for meetings and events planned from the present until 2029 should make it easier for planners to consider the incentive when sourcing meetings in advance. There is 150,000 euros available annually for these group incentives, and applications are welcome each year until the annual fund has been allocated.

The government-controlled area of Cyprus currently offers around 320 hotel-based meeting spaces that can accommodate approximately 33,000 in total, according to the National Tourism Strategy 2035, which outlines the island’s plan for year-round tourism growth and diversifying its revenue stream. The largest city, Paphos, can accommodate groups of up to 10,000, with other cities able to accommodate 3,000 to 8,000, plus smaller mountain resorts that can handle groups up to around 1,000. In addition to hotel-based venues, the island also has museums, municipal and cultural venues, entertainment and multipurpose venues groups can use to host off-site events.

The Ministry hopes the incentive plan will help extend the tourist season into the winter, which is slower in terms of leisure tourism. Even though the total value of corporate group business is significantly less than that of its leisure business, “conference tourism contributes to increasing tourism revenues, reducing seasonality and strengthening winter tourism,” the Ministry said. Group participants also multiply the economic benefits by bringing guests and extending their stays pre- and post-meeting to shop and sightsee — and they tend to want to stay in four- and five-star hotels with state-of-the-art AV, gourmet dining options, and sustainability features.

Among the difficulties in growing the group meeting and event business currently, according to the Strategy, is air accessibility, which can be limited in terms of direct flights from certain key markets, as well as a limited number of hotels big enough to accommodate larger groups without partnering with other venues — especially during busier leisure tourist seasons, and availability of dining options that can host larger groups. Among the Strategy’s key target markets are the U.K., Germany, Poland, France, Greece, the Middle East and Gulf countries. Currently, most groups coming to the island hail from Europe and the Middle East.

To expand its reach deeper into these target markets, Cyprus plans to participate in meeting and event planning trade shows such as IBTM World and IMEX, as well as host fam trips for planners from key markets. The Cyprus Convention Bureau also plans to work closely with academic institutions and Cypriot associations, as well as the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), to bring more awareness of the destination to potential group business. The Strategy also holds out the possibility of working with competitive Mediterranean destinations such as Greece and Malta to develop joint packages and/or promotional campaigns.