How to attract Tourist in a town- Larnaca is the example

Cyprus those days celebrate one of the oldest ever traditions of the country. Kataklysmos, is the water Festival that commemorates the Biblical flood by which God destroyed all living creatures on earth. The festivals take place at the coastal towns of the island.

Larnaca has a long tradition in this festival and the town hall prepared a very attractive, as they say, programme of the festival. A friend of mine sent an email to the town hall the 20th of May to get some info about the festival since the municipal web site had no information then www.larnaka.com . Well until today 27th of may the town hall did not have the programme ready to publish it either on the web or to the press or even send it by the old traditional fax.

My friend, at my presence, called the Municipal Cultural Services many times at +357 24 657745 but never managed to talk to anyone. Today finally the call went through and the person who attended the phone call passed the call to someone else, this someone else passed to the so called responsible person. Finally someone responsible. At the question if they got an email requesting info the answer was that the emails are reviewed by the mayors secretary and answered whenever the Mayor can since he revises them. The email was sent to municipality@larnaka.com the 20th of May asking information about the festival. The mayor in his policy to be close to the citizen answers all mails, I guess.

Anyway, this responsible person said that the programme is not ready yet to be published. The festival is 10 days, the 6th until the 8th of June. The lady on the phone recommended to my friend to make the booking at the hotel for the whole family and if the programme of the festival is not suitable the booking can always be cancelled, and since the booking is from Cypriots the hotel will not take any cancellation fees and no credit card guarantee. I guess this responsible person is also the director of the hotel or hotels in Larnaca.

I will not continue anymore because the rest if Kafkian. Anyway this is what I call Regional Marketing. The town hall of Larnaca apart from running the town also knows a lot about cancelation policies of hotels, reservation terms and conditions and especially they have a complete knowledge of the availabilities of the hotels in the town as well as that hotels apply different terms to Cypriots and different to Swedish, Russian or other white customers.
Thank you Larnaca for boosting the image of your town and for your efforts to promote our traditions in the globe!!!