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This paper aims to provide an understanding of residents' perceptions of how tourism activity in a rural area impacts their environment as well as their economic and social lives individually and as a community.

As a primary method of data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 residents in the rural areas of Cyprus.

The study's findings suggest that tourism activity in the rural areas provides a plethora of opportunities to residents, but comes with challenges and threats. Both social and environmental impacts are mainly for the benefit of the local communities as the engine of development. Emphasis is given to the revival of the local culture with the emergence of small and medium enterprises, along with the motivation of younger populations and women to become active entrepreneurs. However, a more holistic approach should be taken to sustainable tourism development in Cyprus, ensuring that all local communities have an opportunity to develop small-scale niche tourism products that enhance the image of rural destinations and which become a source of pride for the residents.

The study contributes to the literature by enhancing knowledge of the relationship between tourism and local rural communities. Shedding light on residents' perceptions by evaluating social and environmental impacts can guide government policy making and implementation.

In tourism literature, policy is synonymous with the involvement of the government in terms of planning, developing and organising the destination. In the case of the airline industry, policy is verified by a supranational body, the European Union, which sets outs guidelines for all member states. This paper aims to examine how the tourism policy and planning in Cyprus is formulated in an attempt to understand the strategic response of the airlines in the way they fulfil the aims of the tourism strategy.

The primary data are based on the results of 25 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with powerful and elite tourism and airline decision makers in Cyprus.

The results of the research suggest that the tourism policy should take into more consideration and develop strategic synergies and have tighter links with airlines companies in terms of planning and policy formation. This will enable the destination and the government to provide more realistic targets in tourism policies especially in islands. The airline network can both increase the number of arrival and diversify the demand all year round and offer more economic opportunities.

The study addresses two important aspects in terms of tourism development. The first is the policy initiative and the second is the role of the airlines’ for the purpose of tourism. Interrelation between tourism policies and airline developments are rather neglected in the tourism literature. Thus, this study highlights the point that in destination planning especially on islands, the airline decision-makers should participate in the policy making process and set more realistic targets. Additionally, airlines play an important role for destinations reaching numerical targets.

The article offers a thorough and insightful examination of the transformative role technology plays in the tourism industry by introducing the articles of the thematic issue.

The discussion approach involves reviewing relevant literature and providing a detailed description of each article in the thematic issue. In particular, the issue consists of a compilation that includes a series of research articles, case studies and theoretical discussions; quantitative and qualitative research enquiries that examine various aspects of tourism technology, such as cybersecurity, digital marketing, smart tourism initiatives, the role of social media and the impact of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence through different perspectives of discussion.

Each article provides useful conclusions that shed light on the various ways that technologies can transform and revolutionize the tourism industry. Technology and tourism have a reciprocal relationship, where technology not only transforms tourism but also shapes it.

This thematic issue contributes and provides new insights into the evolving dynamics of tourism and technology, offering a multidisciplinary perspective that bridges theoretical frameworks and practical applications for industry stakeholders.

The thematic issue purposed explored the transformative relationship between tourism and technology from various perspectives.

The thematic issue presents various methodologies that examine each topic. Each topic deals with an important issue of tourism and technology and provides an in-depth understanding of the interrelationship.

The integration of technology in the tourism sector has significantly transformed several aspects, including customer and supplier behaviour, business operations, destination assessment, safety and education. Emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence, are reshaping the tourism industry by creating new opportunities for innovation and engagement. The industry’s primary challenge is to utilize these technologies wisely, ensuring they do not replace the concept of hospitality or the exceptional services that humans can offer.

By providing diverse methodologies and perspectives, it highlights the multifaceted nature of the relationship between tourism and technology, thereby contributing original insights into how digital innovations are influencing traveller behaviours, destination marketing and operational efficiencies in the sector. The inclusion of case studies and empirical research enriches the discourse, enabling stakeholders such as policymakers, practitioners and researchers to better understand the implications of this transformative relationship and to adopt strategies that force technological advancements for sustainable tourism development.

Air connectivity is one of the most important aspects of tourism development, especially for island state destinations (ISD) which rely on air travel for accessibility. The complexity of the tourism industry necessitates close interaction among involved stakeholders to ensure successful policy implementation of air transportation operations that facilitate tourism mobility at a destination.

In this paper self-administered questionnaires in a structured format were distributed to 200 managers. Additionally, seven unstructured follow-up interviews were conducted to enrich the content and better support the conclusions.

The results of the study suggest that air transportation and connectivity are not fully integrated with tourism policy and strategy planning. Yet it is crucial that a stakeholder approach is adopted that accounts for the needs of diverse stakeholders and airline strategies, along with a diversified tourism policy that can establish Cyprus as year-round destination.

The role of the airline industry in overall tourism strategy and policy is examined and the unique problems and challenges ISDs like Cyprus face in developing as a tourism destination and overcoming tourism seasonality are underlined.

Culture is an important motivation force to people within the context of tourism. It provides new opportunities for destinations to promote cultural elements and attract more travellers. This study aims to investigate how the cultural heritage of Cyprus is promoted online and to identify whether the needs of travellers who focus on experiential aspects and prioritise culture can be fulfilled.

The research aim is fulfilled through a critical discourse analysis of selected WebPages concerning representation of the culture of Cyprus within the tourism context.

Eighteen websites were included, and the results suggest that Cyprus has Web exposure specifically promoting its cultural heritage. However, the websites have been established with different tourism scopes, with culture comprising just one part of the content. Thus, the development of specialised websites is dedicated exclusively to culture and tourism, and it seems appropriate to attract travellers interested in more educational activities with cultural and historical value. This approach would bring many benefits because this cohort of travellers is in an upper-scale tourist market.

This study is original in nature because it brings together the case of Cyprus, an island destination highly depended on tourism in relation to cultural tourism Web discourse. The promotion of cultural parameters will provide more opportunities for the island and escape from the 3S’s (sea, sun and sand) image to be positioned as a culturally sustainable destination.

The aim of this article is to examine Cyprus, an island highly dependent on tourism, by bringing together the aspects of accessibility as a holistic approach to sustainable tourism development and exploiting the potential for mitigating seasonality problems. Accessible tourism has remarkable potential as an emerging market in providing for the holistic development of destinations. Additionally, it can act as a market that can provide year-round demand through activities for people with disabilities (PwD). Seasonality is a significant issue, especially in small island destinations (SIDs) as there is a prevailing mass tourism mindset with a limited tourism season.

In total, 15 semi-structured interviews took place with tourism practitioners, the tourism industry's main stakeholders, and representatives of disability associations in Cyprus.

The study results suggest that a destination developed to satisfy the needs of PwD is beneficial in many aspects. Additionally, the increasing market of PwD offers an opportunity to address the problem of seasonality. However, this requires the development of a sustainable framework for tourism, including those facilities and activities that can satisfy the needs of PwD and provide opportunities for extended traveling throughout the year.

The study deals with an original topic of discussion since it examines accessibility in sustainable development and the effect on seasonality in SIDs.

The purpose of this research is to emphasize the importance of cybersecurity in the hospitality industry and to propose a particular cybersecurity framework of best practices and techniques to mitigate vulnerabilities and prevent cyberattacks in hotels.

Exploratory research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with hotel managers. The interview content enables the retrieval of real-case cybersecurity incidents, identifies hotels’ vulnerabilities and suggests a new methodological approach to conduct risk assessment in the hospitality industry to mitigate threats and ensure cybersecurity and data protection.

Research results show that hotels need to prioritize cybersecurity and limit cyber threats. To achieve this, hotels must develop effective risk assessment methods and mechanisms followed by implementing the necessary technical and organizational measures to mitigate threats and vulnerabilities, prevent malicious cyberattacks and ensure information security.

This research highlights a new methodological approach to perform effective risk assessment in the hospitality industry as well as a framework of cybersecurity methods and techniques to implement effective controls and mitigate cybersecurity risks.

The paper aims to bring together Limassol’s rich wine culture with the contemporary facet of its developing infrastructure and superstructure as a means through which to promote this city as a tourist destination. Additionally, to identify how Limassol can be experienced in relation to the wine culture based on the experience economy model of Pine and Gilmore (1999) Limassol is a seaside city in Cyprus that has developed extensively over the past few years, with a new infrastructure and superstructure that attracts foreign investments. Additionally, the city has a rich wine history with a particular emphasis on “Commanadaria wine” that originates in the twelfth century and is directly linked with the Richard the Lionheart king of England and the Third Crusade.

The methodology used was qualitative research, and in particular semi-structured interviews with professionals involved in the tourism industry in Limassol. A particular method was used to understand the ways in which wine history and culture permeate and influence the contemporary way of life in Limassol as a tourist destination.

The main results of this study suggest that Limassol has the potential to become an important destination that fulfils the requirements of the experience economy as put forth by Pine and Gilmore (1999). However, the main hindrance is the lack of a constructive tourism policy exclusive on wine tourism that will give a stronger identity to Limassol.

This research is original in nature because it considers a novice geographical area, Limassol, in the academic field. Thus, it is set as the cornerstone for further investigation on wine and tourism in Limassol. The managerial implications of the study are related to the engagement in wine culture, and in providing a unique identity to the city that can be promoted internationally.

The aim of this paper is to investigate and define employees' professionalism in the hotel industry. A professional employee has specific core competencies and personal attributes that improve the quality of service by resolving guest complaints, ensuring guest satisfaction and gaining a competitive advantage. In the hospitality industry, interaction with customers necessitates providing services of high standards that are characterised by professionalism.

This research deployed a quantitative methodology with self-administering questionnaires to hotel managers of 4-star and 5-star hotels.

The results of the study suggest that employees' professionalism in hotels includes skills combined with personality characteristics along with a passion for the profession. Thus, to attest to professionalism, managers must ensure that skills are adjusted to subject-specific knowledge and expertise while incorporating “social consciousness” as a constituent dimension of professionalism.

This study investigates the concept of professionalism as the main prerequisite for the delivery of exceptional hotel services and introduces the notion of “social consciousness” as an additional dimension of professionalism.