TIRANA, June 29 – Albania’s restaurants and hotels are Europe’s cheapest, a report by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union has found.
At 40 percent of the EU average, Albania’s price levels on restaurants and hotels are the lowest among 37 European countries, including 28 EU members, three EFTA states and six EU aspirants.
Restaurant and hotel price levels among regional competitors range from 41 percent in Macedonia, 55 percent in Montenegro, 68 percent in Turkey, 81 percent in Greece, and 4 percent above the EU average in Italy.
Albania’s restaurants offer a mix of traditional and Mediterranean dishes from chefs with international experience while hotel standards have sharply improves as tourism emerges as a key sector of the Albanian economy.
More than four million tourists visited Albania last year with income peaking at about €1 billion.
The Eurostat report comes as Albania is already in its peak tourist season and the government recently cut the value added tax for the tourism accommodation sector from a standard 20 percent to a differentiated 6 percent, which is expected to further reduce hotel accommodation prices.
The Eurostat report shows Albania’s price levels for consumer goods and services were at 49 percent of the EU average in 2016, Europe’s second lowest.
Price levels in Albania range from 53 percent of the EU average for alcoholic beverages and tobacco to 72 percent on food and non-alcoholic beverages. Price levels on personal transport equipment stand at 19 percent below the EU average but are almost equal to the EU average on clothes and consumer electronics which Albania heavily imports.
An earlier Eurostat report showed Albania’s level of economic activity and household material welfare continue to remain one of Europe’s poorest, unveiling growth in the Albanian economy has to sharply pick up in order catch up with its regional competitors.
