TIRANA, June 3 – One of Germany’s biggest hotel groups, the Steigenberger, has expressed interest to expand its hotel and resort network in Albania, Economy and Tourism Minister Arben Ahmetaj has announced.
“It is no secret that the Steigenberger, one of the most famous hotel groups, has expressed concrete interest on specific facilities in Albania,” Ahmetaj has said introducing an action plan for the 2015 tourist season in the southern city of Vlora.
The Steigenberger Hotel Group is one of Europe’s leading hotel companies. From its head office in Germany, the Steigenberger Group operates 110 hotels on three continents including 18 which are under construction or at the planning stage.
Strategic investors in Albania’s tourism sector will be offered state-owned property for a symbolic 1 Euro under 99-year concession contracts to develop tourist resorts, according to a new draft law on tourism which has been submitted to Parliament.
Immovable property owned by central or local government situated in priority tourism development areas will be made available to investors for the construction of accommodation or other tourist infrastructure by the ministry responsible for tourism.
For strategic coastal and lake investments, investors can also build small ports for boat and yacht visitors.
Experts consider the new law a good opportunity to attract strategic foreign investors considering the chaotic development of tourism and urban massacres in the past two decades in the key tourist destinations and that a considerable part of the Albania’s coastline remains virgin.
Back in 2009, France’s Club Med withdrew from a major holiday resort project in Albania’s southern Ionian coast under a similar deal after continuous land disputes with local inhabitants despite a court ruling in favour of the investor’s 99-year concession deal with the Albania government, unveiling the long-standing issue of clear property titles which is often one of the key barriers to foreign investors in Albania.
The travel and tourism industry, which employs around 41,000 people in Albania, is estimated to have contributed by $639 million or around 4.8 percent of the GDP in 2014.
