The global economic crisis could help Albania’s tourism industry if authorities send the right message to foreign tourists
It’s the peak of the tourist season in Albania, the beaches are full, and it feels like the country’s population has doubled.
Most of these summer visitors are non-resident Albanians — ethnic Albanians from neighboring countries or Albanian immigrants who have come to meet their families from the countries where they live and work in the European Union or North America.
However, there is an increasing trickle of non-Albanians in the country’s shores these days. From German tourists to neighboring Macedonians of Slavic descent — foreigners are also arriving in increasing numbers.
While this is due in part to positive changes in Albania’s tourism industry, there is an increasing role being played by the fact that the region and much of Europe is going through some hard economic times.
Think about a German family making a choice between heading to the beaches of Southern Albania this summer instead of Greece or Spain. Several years ago they might ask — Is it safe? Today they are more likely to ask — Is it cheap?
Yes, Albania is less expensive than most of the neighboring countries, and the visitor’s euro goes further in Southern Albania than in Spain or Greece. Because of the geographic position, it is theoretically cheaper to get to Albania too, compared to other less expensive markets like parts of Turkey.
Albania’s tourism authorities should capitalize on that advantage.
As a starting step to introducing Albania to the EU market, tourism officials should focus on Northern Europeans wanting to enjoy the sun and sand, but who can’t afford to fly the Thailand or can’t afford the expensive prices of Italian or Spanish hotels.
While this is definitely not a proposal to turn parts of Albania’s coastline into a Greek-island type scene for drunken European teenagers, there is a huge number of young and less-than-wealthy Europeans that Albania needs to market to. They will put up with Albania’s deficiencies in certain infrastructure areas, as long as they can have a hotel room by the beach and sip on a cold drink that costs much less than it does at home.
One of the strengths Albania has right now is that its people are still genuinely welcoming toward foreign tourists, something you don’t necessarily see in markets that have been saturated for years.
If these tourists create nice experiences, they will keep coming for years to come and they will tell their friends. There is nothing like word of mouth to help things along when it comes to bring tourists into the country.
And this might be the best time to start these efforts since travel is becoming prohibitively expensive and people have less money in their pockets thanks to the global economic crisis.
But there need to be more incentives to bring people to Albania less expensively. Although there are a lot of flights and ferries into the country, the prices of international transportation need to come down to have mass European tourism.
Albania’s government needs to encourage competition by luring in more low-cost carriers that fly from cooler northern European destinations, from where the majority of tourists to Southern Europe arrive. Alternatively it can also give incentives to help Albanian carriers secure better positioning into those markets.
Another important element is building or opening more international airports. The government will have to eventually reach a monetary deal with Tirana International Airport to end its exclusivity as the only international airport. It should do so sooner rather than later. TIA has done great things for Albania and the company that runs it should be complemented for its work, but Tirana is simply too far away from places like Saranda. An airport near Saranda should be a priority to keep the money inside this country, and Albanian officials already have a plan in place to do so.
In the end, Albania is a tiny country. If it manages to create a niche for itself within the European tourism market, it stands to benefit tremendously in economic terms.
