Albanian Tourism, Infrastructure And The Good Will

SARANDA, Aug 26 – Authorities claim success in promoting tourism this year, as an increasing number of tourists visit Albanian beaches this summer.
However, local residents living in tourist areas speak differently, saying they observed a decrease in the number of tourists, particularly ethnic Albanians arriving from Kosova and Macedonia.
And the infrastructure, especially the road network in the country, “advertises” to tourists that Albania is not yet ready to be offered as a world-class tourist destination.
A trip to Saranda along the Riviera beaches tells a lot about Albanian tourism, says observers.
The area is renowned for its marvelous nature, small beaches of only a few hundred meters, the clean waters of the Ionian Sea and abundant green areas, including hills covered with fruit trees and olive oil trees. That’s the good news.
But, how long can it take to travel from Tirana to Saranda? Optimistically speaking, five-six hours.
The paved road from Tirana to Durres is normal and would be accepted in western European countries. Then comes the beach road in Durres, Golem, and Kavaja, which are terrible, unbearable not because of the asphalt, but due to the heavy traffic on a two-lane road that should have been used only for the beach and not to serve as a national road moving cars to southern Albania. There has been road work done only on the Lushnje-Fier highway and the half-prepared road with only two lanes is much, much better than before the summer. Here it starts. The old road in Fier takes you to Vlora, the big city of the Riviera. It’s not that easy to cross it due to an increasing number of cars. That’s okay. Here begins the beautiful Riviera. But if you continue on the road from Vlora to Dhermi (it was done only a few years ago), after that is the difficult part. Nothing has been done up to Himara. If you can slow down when you see a car in front, what could one do when crossing the villages of Dhermi, Vuno, or Jala? And think of the days, earlier this month, with so many tourists driving around. After Himara, it is ‘acceptable,’ that is you find gravel parts of the road, terrible ones, but also newly-paved parts. Thinking that it will be ready, formally, at the end of 2009, but next summer if we take into account political stands trying to show to their voters, that is fine.
Then you reach Saranda, Monday, Aug 25, end of season.
Why? Because immigrants want to go back to their countries where they work, like Greece or Italy. An empty Saranda, with so many concrete buildings, bars, restaurants and lively discos. Only a few people could be seen on the beaches despite marvelous weather.
Bar owners say they have had half the number of tourists this year. None can precisely count tourists, but they are displeased.
Saranda had a large number of tourists only for one month, not much time to consider how the many hotels will return money to their investors.
Too many buildings, not well regulated and every square centimeter seemed occupy in the town. And taking into consideration the long trip, one would be doubtful to choose Saranda for vacations. If the new road is ready next year, then one may consider going to the marvelous beaches along the road to Saranda as the town itself has hardly a place to serve as a beach to pass the day.
It’s not to be pessimistic. True, the area has changed, though a little. It has a great potential for tourism. The government would have done a good thing, first, to invest in new roads, to offer regular power and water supply and then to decide building should be, say, taller than three floors, with all the proper networks needed and the like.
Different roads and the town could likely bring more tourists, in a more organized way, because nature and the people would profit and enjoy the area more.
Tourism is a great potential for this tiny Balkan country, and it should be organized better to bring more. What else is here?