By Alba à‡ela
Another summer is just behind us and the usual round of public announcements and declarations from the official intuitions tells us that Albania experienced yet another boom in the number of foreign tourists that were enchanted by our country’s beauty, convenient prices and welcoming spirit. A more careful examination of the features of Albanian summer tourism this year however, would reveal many discrepancies in the rosy picture.
The roads in Albania this summer were a nightmare, on weekend, on evenings, on the segments being built and rebuilt, on crossroads and on turns. Many accidents happened. Many long lines of clogged traffic occurred ruing the experience for all travelers. This was particularly true for Vlora, the ultimate nodule of all South bound travel and for the segment between Lezha and Fushe-kruja, which bears the brunt of all travel bound to Montenegro and the north beaches of Shengjin and Velipoje. While we are aware that traffic jams occur worldwide, decision to work on roads and reopen digging in particularly heavy traffic routes during summer is not particularly smart one. Public service providers in infrastructure have all the wintertime to make these fixes and yet they decide to sit and wait until summer season. The repetition of this story every single year has made it so vulgar that people find their own complaints absurd.
For those wanting to escape the tyranny of seaside vacations, the North presents a fantastic opportunity for fresh air, amazing mountains and streams and active holidays of hiking. However road infrastructure fails them once again. The Vau i Dejes-Koman segment, on the trip to Valbona is much damaged and even dangerous. Less than 35 kilometers take an absurd long time and a heavy toll on the car. The other north destination Theth has even harder unpaved roads to cross and requires special cars.
Aside from infrastructure, the culture of serving tourists did not experience any positive jump. Albania got an article in international media pointing out what Albanians have known for years: notorious waiters behaving arrogantly to customers! Ask anyone who vacationed in Greece and Montenegro and they will tell you stories about the contrast: smiling waiters, smiling service people, helpful receptionists and correct pricing.
This kind of arrogant and cheating behavior compounds and aggravates the lack of basic services. Southern hotels are keen to post 5 or even 6 stars on their facades, yet they have problems offering hot water and their breakfast (supposedly included in the price) runs out in the first 10 minutes. The hotels and service providers operate under the stress of a short season: only 2-3 months, when in fact given Albania’s weather and landscape the seaside season needs to be at least 5 months long. Diversification of the summer experience also lacks with tourists not having much options to do beach-hoping or reach historical attractions other than privately renting a car for a fat price.
Public spaces have all but disappeared, they are diminishing fast even in traditional areas where there was respect for public space such as in Pogradec. While our regional competitors such as Montenegro and Croatia have very expensive sunbeds for rent they always allow for public beaches as well for those not interested to pay those fees. In Albania this option is becoming really scarce.
Rushing to make money in the self-imposed absurdly short peak season, Albanian tourist operators and the Albanian state are ultimately failing tourists, both foreign and local. They have yet to appreciate the winning combo of tourism that is serving our regional neighbors well: smiles and standards.
