Cyprus: a divided country : How it is perceived/reasoned by Swedish tourists

Sammanfattning: Political instability and conflicts has had a huge impact on a country’s tourism development and can cause long-term effects on the tourism industry. Since the tourism industry contributes to a large part of the country's economy, after crisis management strategies are important to implement and tourism organizations' marketing of the destination. A country that has been affected by a conflict or war, mostly get negative affected in long-term. When it comes to the invasion of Cyprus in 1974, which resulted in a division within the country where one third of the country is occupied in the north by Turks, the tourism industry on the south part restored quickly. The development of the tourism industry on the Greek Cypriot part has resulted in an imbalance in the country regarding tourism, where the north side is lagging. This paper aims to find what motivates Swedish tourists to travel to Cyprus as a divided country and whether the division has an impact on places to stay, visit and the experience during the holiday and finally, future suggestions of the tourism industry in Cyprus. The empirical results were conducted by a qualitative methodological approach, including 25 interviews with Swedish people who has visited the destination once or more. The findings of the study showed that most of the participants preferred staying on the south side, especially in Ayia Napa, Paphos or Limassol and that the primary motivations for travelling was due to the 3S core product of Cyprus consisting of sea, sun and sand. Heritage tourism and crossing the border in Nicosia were also to interest of some of the participants to explore history and culture. Future suggestions for develop the tourism industry on Cyprus is to develop the north part by marketing and creating more activities to attract more tourists.