Go to Albania for tourism, and invest

TIRANA, Dec. 22 – Albania, this tiny Balkan country and once the most isolated in the world, is increasingly attracting the interest of foreign tourists and also foreign investors.
The Culture Ministry cites an increase of more than 40 percent in the number of tourists from a year ago. True that is a very general and unclear figure, but still it shows there is an increase.
Foreigners are normally interested in knowing what this tiny country is like. They had once considered it a black hole, during its former communist days.
Albania witnessed an impressive growth in tourism this year. The government announced that there was a more than 40 percent increase in the number of tourists visiting the country compared to last year. The Albanian private sector in tourism has been growing an average of 30 percent for five years with new hotels, resorts, bars and restaurants.
Albania is very interesting with its Adriatic and Ionian Sea shore. In many areas it is still a virgin territory, unspoiled by construction. In many other areas irregular construction has damaged a lot.
No one would expect Albania to turn into a strong rival for tourism with neighboring Greece or northern Croatia and Montenegro, long associated with international tourism.
Albania’s economic growth over the last years has been very steady. The government says its’ steps also prevented consequences from the recent world financial crisis. They claim a series of government initiatives in recent years have helped Albania to cope with the impact of the world recession.
The Albanian economy has been able to progress despite a number of significant shocks in the world’s economy.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s previous government signed some billions of euros of investment, mainly in the energy sphere.
Albanian tourism and investments may be considered to be flourishing, taking into consideration the country’s tourism levels.
The Albanian economy had the best growth in Europe last year, and this trend is expected to continue this year as well. Foreign investments in Albania increased 59 percent in 2009.
The government claims to have created a good environment to attract investors, also paying attention to road construction and improving infrastructure. The efforts on improving the legal system to protect investors also proved significant. Also, many Western European companies have chosen to escape the high taxes in Europe by investing in Albania as the latter offers the best tax system in Europe with a 10 percent flat tax.
Albania is one of the wealthiest lands in natural resources per square kilometer in the world with amazing mountains, beaches, lakes, rivers, forests, and rich soil. Underneath this land lies billions of proven barrels of oil, trillions of square yards of natural gas, gold, platinum, copper, the largest chrome reserves in Europe, bauxite, nickel, cobalt, magnesium, ores, marble, granite, coal and much more. Albania is rapidly developing and entering the world stage.