Ayia Napa was founded around 1790 by Nikolaos Kemitzis who arrived at the area from Thesalloniki Greece and moved next to the medieval monastery located at the city centre. Ayia Napa until 1974 was a small fishing villiage but after 1974 experienced a rapid development due to the fact that it was chosen as the location to develop tourism since the city of Famagusta which was then the main tourist resort under Turkish troops occupation. It was inaugurated as municipality in 1994. Ayia Napa today is the largest tourist city resort of Cyprus with more than 27,000 hotel beds and more than 145 hotels of all scales and thus 30% of all Cyprus tourism night-stays are in Ayia Napa. It welcomes, on annual basis more than 700,000 tourists from abroad which create approximately 5 million night stays. The contribution of the city to Cyprus economy it is estimated to be around 700 million Euros on annual basis. The resort has high occupancy rates, on average 93% during the 6 month peak period of May - October, according to Cyprus Tourism Organisation Statistics. In addition Ayia Napa is the centre of the cosmopolitan life of Cyprus. One of the main features of the city are the sandy beaches and its crystal clear sea waters. The city was awarded 14 blue flags for the quality of its beaches. The Cyprus Government recognising the importance of Ayia Napa to the economy of Cyprus has charecterized it as urban area, therefore having the same benefits as the rest of 5 main cities of Cyprus (Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol, Paphos and Paralimni). Nowadays in Ayia Napa is currently under construction the largest private investnebt project in Cyprus. The Marina of Ayia Napa, a 250 million euro project from a well known and respected investor Mr. Naguib Sawiris. The goal of the project is to create the best marina of the Mediterranean.