TIRANA, Jan. 31 – This year will mark some important restoration interventions in the country’s cultural heritage sites to make them more accessible to tourists following the Albania’s announcement as one of the top world destinations to visit for 2011.
The Culture and Tourism Ministry says some infrastructural investments will be made in the castles of Elbasan, Berat and the bazaars of Korca and Korca under a 5 million euro fund by the European Commission.
The improvement of access to visitors in the UNESCO archeological park of Butrint, the revitalization of the ancient Durres amphitheatre and the opening of the new ethnographic pavilion at the National Museum of History will be some other projects expected to be implemented during 2011. The National Independence Museum in the southern city of Vlora, the seat of the country’s first government in 1912, will also be extended and reconceived ahead of the 100th anniversary of Albania’s independence.
Government also plans to adopt a new law on tourism to improve the quality of service and investments. VAT for tourism services is also expected to drop to 8-10 percent, down from 20 percent currently in a measure to bring them closer to regional competitors.
The Culture Ministry also plans to create a network of 20 important cultural heritage destinations to further promote cultural tourism.
The underdeveloped mountain tourism will also be on top of the agenda following a government initiative to exclude investors in this kind of tourism from taxes for a period of up to 5 years.
The ministry said 2010 marked a record year for Albania which was visited by 3.5 million people, with 500,000 foreign tourists more than in 2009. 2010 also marked the opening of tourist information offices in 9 regions of the country, the launch of the first training programmes for tourist guides and the establishment of the national register of tourist resources.
Several important restoration projects funded by the European Commission and the One UN programme were carried out in historical centres, monuments of culture and religious sites.
A new law on law and culture was also approved in 2010 foreseeing the establishment of a National Centre for Arts and Culture and the opening of the Theatre of Comedy and a Circus scheduled to start operating this year.
Damaged image
The tourism industry will probably be the most affected sector following the Jan. 21 violent acts and the killing of three anti-government protestors. Albania’s Tourism Association said that the country’s image had been largely spoiled after the violence in the demonstration, announcing that concerned foreign partners had already cancelled dozens of reservations in Albania.
The Association fears the violent clashes in Tirana aired all over the world will have a negative impact on tourism and foreign investors this year, exactly when Albania had been announced as a top destination by Lonely Planet tourist guide.
“Selling Albanian tourism products is not easy at all even under normal conditions. The marketing and the negative effects of the footage of incidents cannot be compensated by increasing the number of promotional spots on foreign TV networks or even intensive media communication to convince the audience for the opposite.”
