"The figures are inaccurate" - There will be a committee for tourism data

If there's one figure the government often uses with pride, it's the number of tourists. Every day we're bombarded with 10 million tourists visiting the country, with the increase in flights, where we ranked first in the world, and so on.

But these figures are often inaccurate, and this is even admitted by public institutions themselves, writes A2 CNN.

“Statistics are worse than lies themselves.” As important as they are in showing reality, they can be just as harmful if used to “manipulate people.” In Albania, the scales seem to lean more towards the latter... especially when it comes to tourism figures.

"Whether the number of tourists within the total number or the number of passers-by within the total figure has increased, we are not able to say how many of them are tourists as differentiated data is missing," said Besnik Vathi, president of the tour operators.

The “inaccurate” figures at best and “inflated” at worst are expected to end soon. Albania will have a Committee for Statistical Data in Tourism. It will be a coordinating body composed of representatives of a dozen public institutions and will function under the Ministry of Tourism and Environment.

"We hope that this committee can provide accurate figures. It has been talked about for some time. To separate 'tourist' from 'visitor'," said Besnik Vathi, president of the tour operators.

According to the government's decision, the Committee will deal with the process of collecting and processing data in the field of tourism in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, the Department for Borders and Migration in order to collect the most complete and qualitative statistical data from all border points.

Said Besnik Vathi, president of the tour operators.

"We need to separate them to understand how many tourists we really have and how many Albanians come and go. You can't call someone a tourist if they don't spend money, go to a hotel, etc.," said Besnik Vathi, president of the tour operators.

The Committee for Statistical Data in Tourism is expected to become active within the first half of this year, to provide more accurate figures, especially during the massive summer tourist season. (A2 Televizion)