2024: A Pivotal Year For Tourism And Economic Growth In Cyprus

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

December 2, 2024

Deputy Minister for Tourism, Kostas Koumis, has described 2024 as a milestone year for Cyprus’s tourism sector, highlighting record-breaking achievements in visitor arrivals and revenue. His remarks, delivered on Friday, follow the release of impressive figures by the Statistical Service.

Tourism Reaches New Heights

Koumis expressed satisfaction with the sector’s recovery, noting that arrivals and revenue have returned to, and even exceeded pre-pandemic levels. According to the Deputy Ministry, revenue from January to September 2024 rose by 31.1% compared to 2022 and 15.3% compared to 2019. Arrivals for the January–October period increased by 4.6% from 2023, and 26.7% from 2022, and even surpassed 2019’s figures by 0.8%.

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Additionally, Koumis pointed out that per capita expenditure remains steady, reflecting sustained economic benefits from tourism. Looking ahead to 2025, the ministry’s strategy prioritises investment in rural tourism, environmental preservation, and community-driven benefits.

Resilient Sector and Strategic Success

The Deputy Ministry credited the robust performance to effective market-targeting decisions and the resilience of the tourism sector. Koumis emphasised that Cyprus’s approach to diversifying its tourism offerings and focusing on quality experiences has yielded significant results.

Economic Highlights: Fiscal Surplus and Revenue Growth

Cyprus’s broader economic performance in 2024 also stands out. Preliminary data from the Statistical Service reveals a surplus of €1.43 billion (4.2% of GDP) for January–October, up from €664.8 million (2.1% of GDP) during the same period in 2023.

Revenue Growth

Total Revenue: Increased by 6.6%, reaching €11.69 billion.
Taxes on Production and Imports: Grew by 6.2%, with net VAT revenue rising 7.6%.
Income and Wealth Taxes: Surged by 16%, amounting to €2.9 billion.
Revenue from Goods and Services: Jumped by 29.9%, reaching €822.7 million.

While some areas, such as social benefits and employee compensation, saw increases, the overall fiscal picture remains positive, driven by disciplined spending and strong revenue growth.

Looking Forward

With record-breaking tourism figures and a strong fiscal position, Cyprus is well-positioned for sustainable economic growth. Investments in rural development, community benefits, and environmental sustainability ensure that both the tourism sector and the wider economy will continue to thrive in the years ahead.

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Meta Unveils 816 Billion-Parameter AI Model For Mac, But It Requires 1TB Of RAM

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 16, 2026

Meta has introduced what it describes as the most capable open-weight AI model available in the United States, making a strategic bet on Apple’s Mac ecosystem. The release reflects the company’s ambition to strengthen its position in open AI while bringing advanced models into professional development and creative workflows.

A Powerful Model With High Hardware Requirements

Called Muse Spark Open, the model has 816 billion parameters and a context window of 1 million tokens. Meta said benchmark results published on Thursday show it outperforming other widely used open-weight systems across key evaluations.

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Natively multimodal, Muse Spark Open is designed for complex coding and agentic tasks, extending beyond conventional chatbot use. However, local deployment requires substantial computing power. According to Engadget, the model needs at least 1TB of RAM, with the best performance expected on a Mac Studio equipped with Apple’s M5 Ultra chip. These requirements may limit local use to developers and organisations with access to high-end hardware.

Built For Real-World Development

Meta has paired Muse Spark Open with Muse Code, its AI coding terminal, and tested it across agentic workflows. In one project, the model helped develop a Mastodon client, handling bug fixes, new features and the build process.

The company also deployed the model in DaVinci Resolve, the professional video-editing platform, where it reviewed and cropped footage. These examples demonstrate Meta’s aim to position open-weight AI as a tool for practical production work, from software development to creative tasks, rather than just research demonstrations.

The Strategic Case For Open-Weight AI

Open-weight models give developers and organisations greater flexibility to customise AI, integrate it into internal tools and build specialised workflows. Depending on deployment, they can also reduce costs and provide more control over infrastructure than relying entirely on proprietary services.

However, access to model weights does not eliminate the cost of running advanced AI. Muse Spark Open’s reported memory requirements could make API access a more practical option for many developers than local deployment.

Expanding Access Beyond Mac Hardware

Meta is making Muse Spark Open available through multiple API platforms, allowing developers to use the model without running it on their own machines. This broadens access beyond users with high-end Mac hardware while retaining the option of local deployment for those able to support it.

The release combines Meta’s push to strengthen its position in the open-weight AI ecosystem with a focus on professional users. Wider adoption will depend on the model’s performance, practical usefulness and the resources required to run it.

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