TIRANA, Jan. 5 – Albania registered a 20 percent increase in the number of foreign tourists who visited the country during the peak tourist season in the third quarter of 2015.
Data published by the country’s state statistical institute, INSTAT, shows Albania was visited by 1.25 million tourists in the third quarter of 2015, up from slightly more than 1 million foreign visitors during the same period in 2014.
Another 750,000 foreigners visited Albania to meet friends and relatives, on business purposes, in transit and even for religious and health treatment.
The overwhelming majority of 86.6 percent of foreigners entered Albania by land, 7.5 percent travelled by air and the remaining 5.9 percent by sea.
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.’
Tourism revenue registered only a modest recovery in the third quarter of the year at the peak of the tourist season. Travel revenue during this period increased by only 3.5 percent to €415 million due to a decline in tourists’ overnight stay despite the number of foreign tourists climbing by 12 percent, says the central bank.
In total, tourist revenue during the first three quarters of this year climbed to €1 billion, up from €946 million during the same period last year.
The travel and tourism industry, which employs around 41,000 people and accounts for 5 percent of the GDP, says the new fiscal package has not only failed to reduce the 20 percent value added tax, but also increased the tax burden on most hotels by imposing a fixed accommodation rate of 1 Euro.
