TIRANA, March 31 – The Berlin cruise ship has opened the cruise tourism season in the country’s biggest port of Durres bringing some 350 tourists, the majority of whom (are) Germans.
Durres port authorities expect some 20 cruise ship and several sailing ships with thousands of tourists to visit Albania this year.
In their single-day visit to Albania, cruise ship tourists, visit Durres, the neighboring historic town of Kruja and the UNESCO World Heritage town of Berat.
More than 8,000 tourists visited Albania last summer in cruise and sailing ships arriving at Durres Port, up 44 percent compared to summer 2014, making the country’s biggest port an emerging destination for cruise tourism.
British Thomson Majesty cruise ship brought the overwhelming majority of 6,000 tourists in four trips to Durres port from late May to Oct. 15 2015.
Port Authorities say the majority, 80 percent of tourists, came from the U.K. and the remaining part from Germany, Austria, the U.S., Italy, China and Brazil.
“In Roman times, the city of Durres was an important port perched on the head of a long beach. These days, the city has spread south, adding a sprinkling of monuments, shopping boulevards and sprawling suburbs to the mix. Things still centre on the coastline – the sands here roll out for an impressive 10 kilometres,” says U.K.-based Thomson company about its Durres itinerary.
Visiting Durres has now become more attractive to tourists with the reopening of the newly restored archaeological museum and the reconstruction of the city’s central square.
Founded in the 7th century BC under the name Epidamnos, Durres has been continuously inhabited for 27 centuries and is one of the oldest cities in Albania. The city boasts a Roman amphitheatre of the 2nd century A.D, one of the largest in the Balkan.
