TIRANA, March 8 – A record of more than 100,000 Albanians visited Turkey last year, making it one of the top travel destinations, especially for the summer vacations.
Data published by Turkey’s tourism ministry shows 103,600 Albanians visited Turkey during the whole of 2017, a 25 percent increase compared to 2016, making Albanians among the few European tourists whose number of tourists has been on a constant upward trend in the past few years despite security concerns hitting Turkey’s huge tourism industry over the past few years.
Differently from Italy and Greece, where about 1 million Albanians live and work and visits there from Albanian residents are often paid to meet relatives and friends, visits to Turkey are overwhelmingly destined for holidays.
Albanian tour operators say the rising trend of Albanians picking Turkey as their holiday destination is dedicated to the affordable all-inclusive packages in Turkey’s tourist resorts that also include charter flights.
The Turkey package holidays are often cheaper compared to rapidly rising prices along the southern Albanian Riviera, but yet considerably higher compared to spending holidays along the Adriatic coastline’s hotels.
Turkey’s rising popularity is also related to cultural affinity due to Albania having been under Ottoman occupation for 500 years until the early 20th century and a series of popular Turkish soap operas aired on Albanian TV.
Detailed data shows some 55,000 Albanian visited Turkey during June-September 2017, with the highest number of about 19,500 recorded in August.
Turkey welcomed about 32.4 million tourists in 2017, with Russians and Germans topping the list as its tourism industry recovered following a sharp decline in 2016 related to a short-term conflict with Russia and Western tourist concerns over security there.
Landlocked Kosovo whose number of visitors to Albania dropped by about a fifth in 2017, had some 116,000 tourists to Turkey in 2017, a 16 percent increase compared to 2016.
Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Croatia, Spain and France are some other European destinations Albanians go to for the summer vacations.
In addition to emerging as a top travel destination, Turkey is one of Albania’s strategic partners and top investors.
A Turkish-consortium that is building Istanbul’s third airport, one of the world’s largest, has recently offered to build Albania’s second international airport in a regional project that also paves the way for Albania to set up its national flag carrier and reduce current ticket prices, among the region’s highest.
Albania is also following Turkey’s tourism development model on promoting quality hotels and tourism resorts by offering tax incentives for a ten-year period on luxury investment.
Albanians increased their spending on trips abroad to €974 million in the first three quarters of 2017, up 12 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, but the local tourism industry generated a record of €1.3 billion in income, according to Albania’s central bank.
The majority of Albanians however spend their holidays at home where the Adriatic and Ionian coastline offer a mix of sandy and rocky beaches amid cultural heritage and mountain tourism destinations.
Albanian authorities say the country welcomed five million foreign tourists in 2017.
