Tourism revenues suffered a blow in the second quarter of this year when they dropped by 10 percent to 240 million Euros, compared to 265 million Euros in the second quarter of 2010
TIRANA, Sept. 12 – Differently from what was expected, the rise in number of tourists reported by the government during the first half of this year did not produce more revenues for the tourism sector in Albania. Official Bank of Albania data published this week show tourism revenues suffered a blow in the second quarter of this year when they dropped by 10 percent to 240 million Euros, compared to 265 million Euros in the second quarter of 2010. The second quarter level for 2011 is even lower to the same period in 2008 and 2009 when tourism revenues registered 250 and 299 million Euros respectively. In total, tourism revenues during the first half of this year stand at 415 million Euros, 11 million Euros less compared to the same period in 2010. The Bank of Albania statistics come at a time when the Bank of Albania has announced a 40 percent increase in the number of foreign tourists visiting Albania during the first half of this year. Data published by the Tourism Ministry show the number of foreign tourists entering Albania during the first half of this year grew by 39.2 percent to 764 539, compared to 549,105 a year ago. While the number of foreign tourists to Albania during the past five years has more than doubled, revenues from tourism, the most promising industry for Albania, have increased by only 50 percent. Tourism Ministry data show the number of foreign tourists visiting Albania from 2006 to 2010 increased by around 2.5 times reaching 2.3 million in 2010, up from 926,000 in 2006. Meanwhile, Bank of Albania data show revenues from tourism during this period have increased by only 52 percent, climbing to 1.2 billion Euros in 2010, up from 805 million Euros in 2006. The disproportion between visitors and revenues has been more obvious in the past couple of years when the number of tourists to Albania increased by more than 20 percent per year while revenues rose by 11 percent in 2009 and shrank by 6 percent in 2010. One of the reasons behind these statistics is that a considerable number of tourists, around half of them, come to Albania as transit visitors or spend only a single day. Experts say that Albania needs to further promote and develop mountain and cultural heritage tourism in order to keep tourism and its revenues growing. Infrastructure, service quality and waste pollution in tourist sites are some other issues which need to further be addressed. Albania currently relies mostly on coastal tourism and has the majority of its foreign tourists during summer. Travel expenditure Meanwhile, travel expenditure during the second quarter of this year climbed to 260 million Euros, up from 218 million Euros in the first quarter of this year and 243 million Euros during the second quarter of 2010. The visa liberalization regime in force since mid-December 2010 has played a minor role since travel expenditure during the second quarters of 2008 and 2009 were higher at 280 million Euros and 297 million Euros respectively, reflecting citizens’ saving trend.
