‘Window to the world’ with new tourism site
North Cyprus went digital this week with the launch of a completely new tourism website and video aiming to be a “window to the world.”
The site features a “turtle” logo to represent the TRNC’s pristine sandy beaches and describes the country as having a “cocktail of differing tastes, aromas, sounds, textures and colours, all over four seasons.”
Visitors can click on to “50 reasons to visit North Cyprus,” with sections on history and religion, nature, culture, gastronomy, health and wellness, weddings and honeymoons, sport and training, sea life and night life.
www.visitncy.com can also be found through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
It was unveiled at a news conference by tourism and environment minister Ünal Üstel who said the objective was to promote North Cyprus to the world as a trademark due to its diverse nature, culture and history.
But Cyprus Today learned that the website and video was made with hardly any input from Turkish Cypriots, being created by Turkey’s tourism ministry.
Mr Üstel said: “The tourism portal, visitNCY has come to life following a great deal of preparation work,” he said. “Furthermore, it is also available on social media, enabling continuous interactive communication, in being able to answer to questions and demands by users,” he said.
“This portal is the answer to today’s standards and can be updated accordingly.This portal is our window to the rest of the world. We ask all our travel agents, tourism shareholders, tour guides and our public to please forward on this link and let’s get North Cyprus promoted globally.”
Promotion and marketing department deputy director, Latif İnce, said “The TRNC is for the first time ever being opened up to the world through the use of digital media. Our objective is to showcase North Cyprus as a strong tourism destination, and reach out to wider markets globally, speedier and with ease.”
He said the portal was at present in Turkish and English, however he said “in a short period of time the portal will also have Russian and German languages.”
“The portal has more than 200 subjects and headings, and more than 75,000 original words making up the text.It has many features, giving live weather updates and frequently asked questions, and allows people to download electronic brochures of the country.A photo gallery also accompanies sections on the events and activities section.
“We are not only introducing a new portal. . .we are introducing a new trade mark and putting forward a modern way of viewing North Cyprus in presenting it to the rest of the world.”
But Mr İnce also told Cyprus Today that Turkish Cypriots took little part in the creation of the website and video, which was all done by Turkey. He said: “The whole video production was done for free by Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (Tika), connected to the Turkish Tourism Ministry.
“We do not know how much it cost but we are grateful to Turkey for this fantastic support given to our tourism.”
Mr İnce added that they had filmed the video over five days last October. “There were two videos – one is 30 and the longer one is 77 seconds long,” he said – stating that the English language clip is the 77 second one.
“All actors and actresses, film crews and equipment was brought over from Turkey. All we had to do was to show them the locations. In fact, we were unable to film St Hillarion because of bad weather during the visit of the filming crew,” he said.
He said filming locations included the Golden Sands beach in the Karpaz, the Othello Castle in Gazimağusa and Girne antique harbour.
Minister Üstel also introduced a new ‘Stay Safe’ certificate – which is being given to enterprises and residencies adhering to the strict Covid-19 rules and hygiene.