‘Patriotic’ tourism loses ground as more Central European tourists discover Albania

TIRANA, Oct. 24 – The number of Kosovo tourists to Albania has registered a surprise decline this year, slightly curbing the impact of the country’s ‘patriotic’ dominated tourism industry as more Central European tourists discover the country, triggering a sharp hike in prices. On a constant upward trend during the past decade, especially following the 2009 opening of the Highway of Nation cutting distance between the two neighboring Albanian-speaking countries, Kosovars still dominate the number of foreign tourists to Albania, accounting for more than a third of the total, but their number during the first three quarters of this year…