TIRANA, Jan. 7 – The number of foreign tourists visiting Albania in the third quarter of 2014, which is the peak of Albania’s summer dominated tourism, registered a 6.2 percent increase, with the number of visitors entering the country from July to September estimated at around 1.8 million people, according to data published by state statistical institute INSTAT.
The overwhelming majority of 87 percent of foreign tourists, mainly ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia, entered Albania by land, while 119,000 by air and 107,000 by sea.
INSTAT reports the total number of foreigners who visited Albania in the first three quarters of 2014 is estimated at around 3 million people.
Tourism revenue in the third quarter of the year, which is the peak of the tourist season, rose to 401 million euros, up from 362 million euros during the same period in 2013, signaling a recovery in this vital sector which has been suffering crisis impacts since 2010. In total, tourism revenue rose to 946 million euros, up from 760 million euros in the first nine months of 2013, according to Bank of Albania data.
Tourism revenue registered a drop for the fourth consecutive year in 2013. Central bank data show tourism revenue dropped to 1.1 billion euros in 2013, down from 1.14 billion in 2012 registering the lowest level since 2007.
Meanwhile, Albanians’ spending on trips abroad rose to 1.1 billion euros in 2013, up from 1 billion euros in 2012 and the peak 1.12 billion euros in 2011 when Albania’s visa regime to the Schengen area was lifted.
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.’
Last May, U.S-based APCO Worldwide and its StrawberryFrog ad unit was announced the winner of an international competition on branding Albanian tourism which in the past four global crisis years has suffered a decline in income.
The global ad campaign will be led by StrawberryFrog and APCO Worldwide under the slogan “Albania, Go your own way.”
