Companies hope to better develop regional tourism, while profits fail to rise with the number of visitors
TIRANA, Oct. 6 – With the high tourism season now over, the official numbers showed that although there was higher number of tourists traveling to the region, the profits in the tourism industry were down, which means customers spent less money while on vacation.
So several tourism-related companies from the region came together in Tirana to present their works with the aim to help the regional tourism development.
There were many Kosovo companies there hoping to attract tourists from Albania to Kosovo, since during the summer months most tourists to Albania come the other way around.
Experts and entrepreneurs from both countries are meeting several times to create intensive contacts that will be finalized in a multilateral agreement to help the tourist industry on both sides of the border.
Because of Kosovo’s size and location, its tourism operators believe that it can be successful only if it is part of a wider package.
There is already a trend on the ground that sees tourists passing through the region and spending in a few days in each country, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, etc.
Albanian Ministry of Tourism officials say there are currently no serious problems that may stop an official tourism cooperation agreement between Kosovo and Albania. “If our countries do not cooperate Šthen growth will be even slower, more limited and curtailed,” Enver Bytyci of the Albanian Ministry of Tourism told the Albanian service of DW.
Byty詠thinks it is time to establish an inter-regional structure that will boost priorities, and build the long-term strategy in the tourism sector. He mentions one factor that has impeded regional cooperation so far, concerning the competition between the regional countries themselves, to attract as many tourists in their territories.
Meanwhile, official data came out this week that showed that although the number of tourists has grown considerably, 10 times since 2004, the profits have gone up only 2.1 times from 2004 to 2009. According to official data by the government and the Bank of Albania, the number of visitors has increased from 300,000 in 2004 to 3 million in 2009. While revenues for the same period increased, according to the Bank of Albania, from 592 million euros in 2004, to 1.3 billion at the end of 2009.
Critics say the government is miscalculating the number of visitors on purpose to paint a rosy picture by including in the number anyone who enters Albania – whether in transit or for business as a tourist, when in reality they are not.
