Police, health services enhanced to serve seaside tourism

TIRANA, Aug. 7 – Authorities report they have increased the presence of police and healthcare staff in the seaside areas in western Albania to cope with an increase in the number of visitors at the height of the tourist season.
In a new format of patrol for Albanian police, officers have been wearing more sportive uniforms and riding bikes, particularly in Durres Beach, the country’s largest. The health ministry also reported that it has deployed an increased number of emergency medical staff along the shoreline.
July did not go as well as expected in tourist areas, with a significantly lower number of visitors.
Rainy weather was largely to blame, experts say. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan also usually lowers the number of visitors from the former Yugoslavia, where ethnic Albanians tend to be more observant.
Albania’s gets most of its visitors from landlocked Kosovo and Macedonia. Most are ethnic Albanians, but authorities are also reporting an increased numbers of visitors from central and western Europe.
Last year, the tourism sector faced similar difficulties – combined with the electoral season, which tends to turn tourists off – and for first time in more than a decade the number of foreign tourists visiting Albania registered a slight decline in 2013, while tourism revenue continued their downward trend for the fourth year in a row, unveiling the critical situation in one of Albania’s most promising sectors.
Data from the country’s state statistical institute, INSTAT, show the number of foreign tourists to Albania dropped by 1.5 percent to 3.46 million in 2013, down from a historic high of 3.51 million in 2012, registering the first decline since 2000. Ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro account for three-fifths of foreign tourists visiting Albania, with local experts often referring to this market as “patriotic tourism.”
Albanian authorities have tried to reverse the trend with international advertising campaigns and improving the conditions of the infrastructure but have faced a prolonged economic crisis in the region and the continent, which means lower tourism spending in general.