By Alfred Peza
When the 2016 European Cup, which was held in France, came to an end, the enthusiasm and pride of the Albanian fans seem to attract more media coverage than the performance of the red and blacks. Some of the most prestigious media of the continent wrote at the end of the event with capital letters: The world discovers Albania! This would perhaps be considered the first time in history that foreigners discover Albanians in one of the most beautiful ways. This has perhaps led many people to seek more information and become more curious on Albania. A clear sign for this is that sooner or later, there will be a boom of tourism in the country, the same way it happened for neighboring countries around us. This means that industry of tourism will finally occupy the place that it deserves, as one of the main pillars of our national economy.
I remembered this detail, dating back 10 months ago, in the past few days, while I’m in touch with a friend of mine from Italy, who has brought his family for a sightseeing tour to Albania. Although he has visited Tirana in a number of occasions in the recent years, their journey from Kruja to Tropja, from Shkodra to Berat and from Vlora to Saranda and Gjirokaster via the coastline, has surprised his German wife and their children, who have come to Albania for the first time, a great deal. They cannot stop sending photos, videos and exciting comments to their friends all over the world about each place that they see, without concealing the fact that not only they’re in love at first sight with the country, but they have started to make plans to buy a property on the Albanian Riviera. This and many other daily examples show that Albania’s solution for the future are not the Ponzi schemes or reliance on the money sent by Albanian migrant workers. We have no market, no human resources and other sources to develop heavy industry, to secure a full cycle for the processing of minerals, to manufacture technological equipment, cars or chemical industry. Tourism is the most suitable industry for us as a country. With a clear strategy, it can soon turn into our national “gold mine”, which up until today, we haven’t exploited as we should have. God has given us hundreds of kilometers of beautiful coastline, lakes, rivers, endless waterways and around 300 days a year of sunshine in a fantastic Mediterranean climate. All of this and being located in the crossway of the main tourist destinations of the world, make up for a solid basis for a long-term investment.
Among others, the global industry of tourism needs new destinations on an annual basis, in order to satisfy people’s growing demands. This and many other reasons have encouraged in the recent years and months an endless number of articles in the most prestigious world media about the alps, the beautiful scenery around the country, the fantastic beaches, our old and new cities, archeological sites and many unexplored and exciting destinations. Albania’s entry in the top lists of the international tourist destinations this year makes you believe that the world has really discovered us. Not only this, but it has set off to explore us, offering us clear and strong assurances that the contribution of this industry in our economy may be comparable to the one that it has had for decades in countries such as Montenegro and Croatia and perhaps, a few years later, it could be compared to Greece, Italy and Turkey.
The reduction that the government made a few days ago to VAT (Value Added Tax) on tourism from 20% to 6%, making it the smallest one in the region, offers much more assurance for the future, because experts consider it as a domain which attracts big investments, domestic and foreign ones in resorts that meet international standards, in tourist villages, in the industry of entertainment, hotels and lodging and a growingly consolidating network of bars and restaurants. But also in the maritime industry, which has been historically undeveloped and underdeveloped. If there are investments in fishing, marinas, if we encourage tour operators to bring cruise ships here, if Albania becomes part of regional tours of large tourist groups in the Adriatic and Ionian, if we encourage travelling by boat, underwater sports, etc, then this would lead to a real tourist boom in Albania, which has been missing for so long.
This boom would have a very big impact in boosting other important sectors such as infrastructure, real estate, construction, agriculture, farming, agribusiness, employment and professional schools. All of these sectors would encourage young people and other categories of people to invest in new knowledge, to create businesses which perhaps do not exist, due to the lack of demand in the market. The sector of new digital technologies still remains unchartered territory. This domain could create numerous applications to connect markets and harmonize services, needs and demand-supply. All of this could offer an unprecedented boost to family tourism, to new modern investments in viticulture, olive groves, greenhouses and agribusiness.
The first positive signals have been given last year when it was reported that revenues compared to 2015 grew by 13% or 175 million euros. The number of foreign tourists during 2016 grew by 33%. According to INSTAT, over 1.5 million people have visited our country for tourism. Day tourism grew by 165%, while the number of foreigners visiting the country for business purposes grew by 46%. This led to a total of 1.5 billion euros in the form of direct revenues from tourism. This is the highest amount of revenues that this industry has generated for Albanians throughout history. This is enough to understand that what drives tourism are not only international developments, as it has been the case in the recent years after the exit of eurozone from the economic and financial crisis, but also our domestic political, economic and social stability. Without forgetting the image of the country in the region and the world and the investments for the improvement of our cities and villages in urban infrastructure, roads and water supply systems. But also investments on our national culture of services, crafts, foreign languages and the holding of different events, national and international.
The world has started to discover Albania. It’s been years that we have been looking forward to this moment. But a question comes to our mind: Are we ready to receive the world in our home? Mostly, throughout history, the world has come here in the form of evil and our doors have always been open. Now that the world is arriving for good things, I don’t think that we have the luxury to reject it.
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Note: The stances expressed in the Opinion section do not necessarily represent the editorial line of Albanian Free Press
