Tourism is becoming the main sector of the Albanian economy. As the government learns the number of millions of foreigners visiting Albania, experts and market operators are on the side of tourists who are fewer in number, but who spend more. Quantity or quality? What do we have and what do we need?
Foreign tourists chose Albania this year as well. The images of the streets of Tirana filled with groups of tourists who look intently at every detail are also confirmed by the official figures. In the 9th month of this year, the number of foreign tourists reached over 9.7 million, being more or less in line with the government's target of 14 million tourists this year.
But are numbers alone enough? Can the challenge with tourism be called won this year?
While foreigners have preferred to come to Albania, Albanians have chosen other countries to rest. The data show that until October of this year, over 6.5 million people traveled abroad, or 15.6% more than a year ago.
The expenses they have incurred on these trips are also increasing. In the 9th month of this year, Albanians have spent over 2 billion euros abroad, or 19.1% more than a year ago.
But how much have foreigners spent in our country? It turns out that in the 9th month of this year, foreign tourists spent a total of 3.8 billion euros in Albania, or 20% more than in the same period a year ago.
How financially successful has the tourism sector been this year? The calculations show that the balance of the tourism sector for the 9th month of this year was positive, with a total income of 1.8 billion euros that remained in the Albanian economy.
But, beyond this figure, how much did foreign tourists spend on average in our country? To understand their typology. It turns out that on average a foreign tourist has spent 391 euros for his stay in Albania. A figure that is considered low and proves that Albania is still far from the elite tourism it should aim for and what we currently have is mass tourism with poor visitors.
The increased flow of foreign tourists has made life difficult for the locals. This has been accompanied by an increase in the prices of products of daily consumption, rents or even difficulties in providing public services, such as cleaning. A phenomenon that happened and happens in other countries that have developed tourism, such as Italy or Spain, where there have also been protests against foreign tourists by locals.
Tourism is becoming the locomotive sector of the Albanian economy. With an increased weight in economic growth, with the increase in the number of employees and the absorption of domestic and foreign investments.
But also for the connection with other sectors, although such a synergy has been missing with agriculture, a declining sector, and where the needs of the domestic market for products, mainly food, are being met with imported goods.
The weight that tourism and other related sectors have in the country's economy is the highest in the region, with 30.4% of the Gross Domestic Product, followed by Montenegro, a country that also has tourism among its main sectors.
But despite the growing numbers of foreign tourists, the sector still has many problems, which vacationers and market operators face. They start with the lack of manpower that has increased costs and made it difficult to cope with the flow, with the devaluation of the euro, a currency in which mainly part of the activity is followed by informality and the lack of coordination of policies with the central government and the local.
Meanwhile, the government has made public the vision to develop tourism in the coming years. The new National Strategy for Tourism 2024-2030 has already entered into force, which foresees the directions and instruments for how this sector will develop in the next 7 years.
The strategy divides the country into 6 tourist clusters, grouping several regions according to common characteristics. For each of the casters, the draft has drawn out primary and secondary tourism products, key resources and attractions, and key experiences available to tourists.
But what are the measures that according to tourist operators and sector experts should be taken?
What we have today is a chaotic tourism, oriented to quantity and very little to quality. In the economy, everything is an account and for the accounts to turn out well, the philosophy and approach must be changed, and therefore the investments and measures for tourism. (A2 Televizion)
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