The visionary entrepreneur behind Creative Tours, Wine and More boutiques, and Le Bordeaux Bistro, shares insights into his latest ventures, challenges, and optimistic outlook for 2025 in the tourism and retail industries. With over 35 years of experience in the hospitality sector, he has been instrumental in enhancing Cyprus's tourism landscape, particularly focusing on the French market. His ventures, such as the Wine & More Privilege Club, have evolved into exclusive membership organisations in Cyprus, reflecting his commitment to offering unique experiences to both locals and visitors.

You are an official French Foreign Trade Advisor, for many years you have strengthened France-Cyprus trade relations. Let’s start with your work in the travel industry. For more than 30 years, Creative Tours has been serving the local community with outbound travel services while also operating as one of the largest providers of inbound travel to Cyprus. What is your outlook for 2025?

I believe 2025 will be an exceptional year for the sector. If the geopolitical situation remains stable, demand will soar. I am already securing hotel rooms for the next season by paying significant deposits. It is the only way to guarantee availability, as I expect a serious shortage of rooms. In fact, I think we will face challenges finding accommodations for visitors in summer 2025, given the anticipated surge in bookings.

That is a very positive prediction. However, some organisations have expressed concerns about potential challenges in the upcoming season. What is your take on that?

I understand their concerns—we live in a very complicated environment—but I don’t share them. The English market is doing exceptionally well, and other markets are performing strongly too. From my perspective, 2025 is shaping up to be an excellent year overall. We’re preparing for this by launching a few new projects, including an online tour operator.

Can you tell us more about this new platform? How does it differ from established sites like Booking.com?

Our new platform, VacancesaChypre.com and VacancesaChypre.fr, is tailored specifically for the French market. Unlike Booking.com, which primarily focuses on accommodations, our platform offers a complete travel solution. In addition to hotels, it includes flight options, curated French excursions, and guaranteed guided tours in French. Everything is designed to provide French-speaking travellers with a seamless experience in their native language.

While we have the technical capability to accept bookings in multiple languages, French remains our priority. Creative Tours is the largest tour operator facilitating travel between France and Cyprus, and this platform reinforces our commitment to serving that market.

What other plans do you have for Creative Tours in 2025?

For 2025, we are heavily investing in our events and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) department. This year, we achieved a remarkable 50% growth in volume, and we aim to replicate that success next year. To support this expansion, you need to have a dedicated team. That is why I have recruited two highly skilled professionals to strengthen our team. With their expertise, we are confident in delivering exceptional results and growing this segment further. We’ll offer our MICE services in Cyprus but also in France, in United Arab Emirates, Greece, Malta.

With these developments, we aim to make 2025 another milestone year for Creative Tours.

You also have a chain of shops—Wine and More, present in almost every town in Cyprus. How do you see the retail industry evolving, particularly given its reliance on the Russian-speaking community in Cyprus?

Our retail business has been challenging over the past couple of years. Our shop wasn’t visible from the street during renovations, as the building owner added two new floors. Only recently, in late 2024, have we been fully operational again. In December 2024, for instance, we saw a 50% increase in turnover compared to December 2023.

Our business has historically relied heavily on Russian clients. However, the market has shifted, and we’ve noticed new dynamics. There are so many new residents, especially in Limassol! The renovations made us less visible for a while, so these new people likely haven’t discovered us yet. We are planning initiatives to reintroduce ourselves to the community, including events and promotions to attract this audience.

What else would you like to mention to our readers?

I’d like to invite your readers to our new wine bar, Le Bordeaux Bistro, located on Makarios Avenue. It’s a cosy space offering French dishes and wines, and we’re thrilled with its performance so far.

For those in Larnaca, I have good news—we’ll be opening a boutique there soon, completing our presence across Cyprus. We already have shops in Paphos, near the mall, and in Nicosia. Additionally, we have franchise agreements in Agia Napa and Peyia. I invite all of you to visit one of Wine and More shops, to see the selection of our wines, charcuterie and cheeses!

In Limassol, Christophe is well known as the owner of a wine boutique, and his main activity has always been tourism. The most important thing in life is family, says Christophe, a father of four sons and a loving husband. He loves to joke, to see happy people around him. He would call a book about his life Mon voyage – “My journey”, and its current chapter “The best is yet to come!”

Photos: sb-cyprus.com