Some 500,000 foreigners visit Albania

TIRANA, Oct. 1 – The number of foreign tourists visiting Albania during the first eight months of this year rose by a quarter to more than 500,000, Tourism Minister Aldo Bumci said a symposium held in the frame of the Agribusiness and Tourism fair.
“Latest data show some 524,983 foreign visitors entered Albania in the January-August period, up 25 percent compared to the same period in 2011. Currently some 725 accommodation units with a capacity of 25,000 beds are registered. Family tourism also offers around 15,000 beds taking the total number of beds to 40,000. There are also some 250 active travel agencies in the tourism sector,” added Bumci, praising Albania’s international coverage and attention by Lonely Planet, the Guardian.
Bumci said government was in the stage of drafting its new 2013-2020 tourism strategy which will focus on sustainable tourism under a national development plan integrating care to environment, cultural heritage values and the exploitation of tourist resources.
“The drafting of the plan is an all-inclusive and communicating process accompanied by an action plan with clear responsibilities, deadlines, budget and continuous monitoring,” said Bumci.
Tourist products, the development of mountain tourism and the improvement of the quality of service and human resources in the industry will be the focus of the new strategy.
The necessity of drafting a new development strategy on tourism is based on the fact that tourism is considered an important sector of economic development and because of the fact that this is the last year of the previous 2007-2013 sectoral tourism strategy.
Speaking at the trade fair, Prime Minister Sali Berisha described agribusiness and tourism as two realities so closely related as human beings to their tastes.
While tourism revenue slightly recovered in the first half of 2012, Albanians continue spending less on trips abroad. Tourism revenues rose by only 3.8 percent to 431 million euros for the first half of 2012 while Albanians cut their spending on tourist trips abroad by 12 percent to 421 million euros year-on-year, according to central bank data.
The number of foreign tourists to Albania during the past five years has more than doubled, but revenues from tourism, the most promising industry for Albania, have increased by only 50 percent. The disproportion between visitors and revenues has been more obvious in the past couple of years when the number of tourists to Albania increased by more than 20 percent per year while revenues rose by 11 percent in 2009 and shrank by 6 percent in 2010.