TIRANA, March 10 – At a time when the Albanian economy continues suffering crisis impacts and a key driver of growth in recent years such as the oil extraction and mining industry has been affected by a sharp cut in international prices, the rising tourism industry can play an important role to compensate Albania’s declining exports.
World Bank country manager for Albania Tahseen Sayed says tourism can be a leading growth generating sector for Albania’s economy and can also create new jobs, given the country’s abundant and beautiful natural resources, coupled with a rich cultural heritage.
Speaking at a recent workshop on the completion of an integrated coastal zone management and clean-up project, Tahseen urged sustainable tourism development in order to prevent urban catastrophes such as the one in the beautiful Ionian town of Saranda, in southernmost Albania.
“You have already seen how the beautiful Saranda coastline has been affected by uncontrolled development. Integrated management of coastal areas and promotion of sustainable tourism, if done right and by learning lessons from Albania’s own experience and other countries’ experiences, can protect Albania’s natural endowments, yield economic benefits for the local communities, create jobs and contribute to the country’s economic growth,” said Sayeed describing this as a win-win proposition.
The World Bank says that for the development of tourism to proceed in an integrated and sustainable manner, it is critical to move with the participation and ownership of local communities and ensure that infrastructure and associated developments do not undermine natural endowments.
“The future protection and regeneration of the coastal area, Albania’s beautiful natural asset, can serve as a stepping stone for sustainable tourism.”
The World Bank Group says it is currently preparing its next five year new Country Strategy for Albania which will support the country’s goal of accomplishing sustainable and inclusive economic growth. The government’s priorities to accomplish this goal include sustainable and inclusive land and natural resource management. This project has not only demonstrated concrete results but has established the building blocks for future coastal regeneration and sustainable tourism development.
The World Bank Coastal Zone Management & Clean-Up Project made possible the construction of cruise ship port and a landfill in Saranda, the cleanup of the Porto Romano hotspot, and water supply infrastructure, access roads for the population of 13 villages.
Tourism potential
Albania has promoted its coastal and cultural heritage tourism at a series of European destinations in the first two months of this year and has been featured as an emerging Mediterranean destination by several prestigious media and travel portals.
Albania’s tourism was showcased in Vienna, Madrid, Milan, Prague and Berlin tourism fairs this year while The Telegraph, the National Geographic Traveler, the Culture Trip portal recommended the Balkan country as an unexplored Mediterranean destination.
Albania offers a miscellaneous picture of coastal and mountain tourism and has been attracting more and more foreign tourists in the past few years being nicknamed as “A New Mediterranean Love” and “Europe’s Last Secret”.
In January 2014, The New York Times ranked Albania as one of the top four global destinations to go to for 2014, placing the Balkan country as the single European destination on top of the list. The prestigious daily newspaper ranks the Albanian coast the number four destination to visit, describing it as Europe at its best on a rugged shore and noting that “the Maryland-sized country combines the rugged beauty of Croatia with undiscovered ruins of Turkey or Greece.”
The rating by New York Times came after Lonely Planet tourist guide ranked Albania as the top destination for 2011 and the country was placed sixth in CNN’s top 10 destinations for 2011.
Back in 2012, the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest national newspaper, selected Albania as a top tourism destination in 2012.
In May 2014, U.S-based APCO Worldwide and its StrawberryFrog ad unit was announced the winner of an international competition on branding Albanian tourism which in the past four global crisis years has suffered a decline in income.
The global ad campaign will be led by StrawberryFrog and APCO Worldwide under the slogan “Albania, Go your own way.”
The number of foreign tourists visiting Albania in the third quarter of 2014, which is the peak of Albania’s summer dominated tourism, registered a 6.2 percent increase, with the number of visitors entering the country from July to September estimated at around 1.8 million people, according to data published by state statistical institute INSTAT.
In its latest report, London-based World Travel & Tourism Council says the direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to Albania’s GDP was ALL 68.1 bn (Euro 478 million) equal to 4.8 percent of total GDP in 2013. Meanwhile, the total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, was 15.2 percent of total employment (146,500 jobs).
