Albania is the pearl of the Balkans ,a favorite destination for millions of tourists who flock each year mainly to its beautiful coastline and not only because of its cheaper prices compared to countries such as Italy, Croatia and Greece. Albania's natural beauty is a relatively recent "discovery" and has become a strategic asset of the country's development.
Growing wealth for both citizens and state coffers can come from tourism.
The economic activity generated by the "Travel and Tourism" sector produced in 2022 $1.7 billion of GDP (9.4% of GDP), 97,700 thousand jobs, $3.1 billion of visitor exports, with investments amounting to $270 million, according to a report by Intesa San Paolo Bank Albania.
But the growing success of tourism in Albania is also a complex challenge for both tourism operators and public policy. Mass tourism requires adequate accommodation facilities, skilled staff, and increasingly efficient transportation networks. Risk is always around the corner: if tourists do not find what they expect, they will not return. Curiosity tourism does not pay much more. This is why the Rama government is committed to designing a comprehensive strategy to integrate tristic activities into an overall vision of Albania''s development.
Some critical issues are well highlighted in the aforementioned Intesa San Paolo Bank Albania report: "the substantial dependence on the 'sea' resource, the marked seasonality of revenue, the low value of the average stay indicator, the underutilization of accommodation capacity and other primary resources, the potential overcrowding in specific areas and the underutilization of resources in regions with significant untapped potential, as well as the significant dependence on international proximity tourism and the presence of informal tourism supply." According to this report in Italy, one night spent by a tourist generates a different economic impact. The added value for each additional night spent is due to the shift from a monothematic form of tourism (beach tourism, with 128.2 euros) to an integrated, multidimensional and sustainable model (163.6 euros). Applying the Italian proxy to the case of Albania, the improvement in quality (for the same number of nights spent) would lead to a growth in Travel&Tourism GDP: from $1.7 billion GDP to $2.17 billion GDP.
Albania can and must focus on sustainable tourism. This means protecting the coasts ,avoiding excessive and haphazard overbuilding and enhancing the unspoiled natural areas in which Albania is so rich :over 15 natural parks, almost 800 protected areas that are now 21.5% of a territory of just 28,748 km²
Cooperation with Italy can be of great help to Albania, which can and should learn from Italy's mistakes, but more importantly, it can take advantage of Italy's long and established experience in the field.
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