On an island with an economy depending on tourism, there is nothing extraordinary about people going into this business. However,some cases stand out more than others and “The Grecian Hotel Enterprises” is one of these. It is a story of two consequent successes in the hotel industry, with a war and occupation in between.

The company is a family-run private business, with six hotels, three in the Ayia Napa region, 1 in London, UK and two in Turkish occupied Famagusta, which used to be the island’s main tourist resort until Turkey invaded the island in 1974. Its logo is “The Pathfinder”, and when you read further down you’ll realise why. The man behind this success story is Takis Kounnas, an enterprising Cypriot who was in the fruit exporting and shipping business until 1964, when, after a trip to Sweden, he realised this island has much to offer a tourist: sunshine nearly ten out of twelve months of the year, Grecian blue sea and fine sand. “I was on a business trip to Sweden when I saw dozens of people gathered outside the opera house looking up at the sky,” says Mr. Kounnas. “When I asked the taxi driver what they were doing, I was taken aback with his reply: they are trying to soak up the sun, of course!” For any person coming from a Mediterranean island, this scene sounds extraordinary, if not funny, and when this person is also enterprising, he immediately knows how to turn the sun into money. “I knew then and there that the sun in Cyprus could be beneficial” says Mr. Kounnas, and time proved him right.