Some 632,000 tourists from Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro visited Albania in the first half of this year, accounting for 60 percent of total foreign tourists
TIRANA, July 30 – Ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro account for three-fifths of foreign tourists visiting Albania, according to a report published by the Tourism Ministry. Data show some 632,000 tourists from Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro visited Albania in the first half of this year, accounting for 60 percent of total foreign tourists. Local experts often refer to this sector of the market as ‘patriotic tourism.’ Some 363,785 tourists from Kosovo visited Albania in the first half of this year, accounting for 34 percent of total foreign tourists. The construction of the Highway of Nation linking Albania to Kosovo in the shortest possible way has considerably increased the number of Kosovars visiting Albania. Second come tourists from Macedonia, where ethnic Albanians make up around 30 percent of the local population. Some 170,273 Macedonians most of whom ethnic Albanians visited Albania in the first six months of the year. In recent years, a considerable number of Macedonians are also preferring Albania to Greece due to the name dispute and tensions with Greece. Visitors from Montenegro rank fourth with around 98,000 tourists. Albanians account for around 5 percent of Montenegro’s populations. Tourists from neighbouring Greece, a majority of whom are believed to be Albanians but hold Greek citizenship, ranked the third largest group with 118,000 tourists. Data from the Tourism Ministry show some 62,700 Italians, 28,000 Britons, 23,234 Americans, 23,000 Turkish, 22,000 Germans and 16,147 Serbs visited Albania during the first half of this year. In total, around one million foreign tourists visited Albania during the first half of 2013, up 15 percent compared to the same period in 2012.
Albania continues having a disproportion between the number of tourists visiting it and revenues generated from it. Tourism Ministry data show Albania was again visited by more tourists in 2012 but Bank of Albania statistics reveal tourism revenues continued their downward trend for the third year in a row. For 2012, the Tourism Ministry reports a record 3.4 million foreign tourists, up 26 percent compared to 2011, visiting Albania which is 21 percent more than the 2.8 million resident Albanians identified by the latest population census in 2011.
Meanwhile, the country’s central bank reports tourism revenue declined for the third year in a row in 2012 despite government reporting a significant boom in the number of tourists visiting Albania. Central bank data show tourism revenue in 2012 slightly dropped to 1.145 billion Euros, down Euro 24 million or 2 percent compared to 2011.
