Albanians no longer prefer their country as a holiday destination

Albanians no longer prefer their country as a holiday destination
By Eglantina Nasi

“We did a very good thing by going to Turkey. We enjoyed it very much. We were very happy with the services and we had no patience or money to waste in the restaurants of the South…”. This is how Alma from Tirana, who along with her husband chose the Turkish Riviera and not the Albanian one for their holidays, explains the days that they spent in Antalya, Turkey. She’s not the only one, as there are many Albanians who are opting for such alternatives during the summer season, instead of spending their holidays in Albania, despite the fact that authorities are promoting the latter as a sweet oasis for holidays. This phenomenon has been recently confirmed by official figures, according to which the number of Albanians exiting the territory of their country was higher than last year.

“The number of Albanians who have exited the territory of the country during the month of July 2017 is 496.163. Compared to July 2016, this number has increased by 11%”, say experts of the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) in relation to this. They also say that the number of Albanians exiting the country also appears to be higher during the period from January until July of this year. “The number of Albanian citizens who have exited the territory of the country in the first seven months of the year is 2.759.744, registering an increase of 4.9% compared to the same period a year ago”, they explain.

The same thing can also be said for the month of June this year, which coincides with the official start of the summer holiday season. “The number of Albanian citizens exiting the territory of Albania during the month of June 2017 is 381.246. Compared to June 2016, this number has increased by 2.6%.  Meanwhile, the number of Albanians leaving the territory of the country in the first six months of 2017 is 2.263.581, registering a 3.7% increase compared to the same period a year ago”, INSTAT’s report states. This clearly reflects the growing trend this year of the number of Albanians visiting other countries, thus indicating that fewer and fewer of them are seeing Albania as their holiday destination. The same thing is also happening with holidaymakers from Kosovo, who also appear to be fewer in number during this season, compared to the previous years. Expressed in figures, holidaymakers from Kosovo occupied 31% of the total number of tourists coming into the country, while a year ago, this figure was 40.2%.

Destinations go as far as Maldives and Bora Bora

Maldives and Bora Bora, two expensive international destinations for all categories of tourists and not only Albanians, who have started to visit them too. This is also indicated by the data supplied by tour operators. According to them, Albanians have also purchased packages for these destinations.

They even say that this trend has grown even more, especially in the past two years, when packages for these distant destinations have become less expensive worldwide, making them more affordable for a particular category of Albanians. On the other hand, the same thing also goes for destinations in the region. They, too, have cut prices for their packages, enticing Albanians to head there, even as a better alternative to spend the weekend. This includes countries such as Croatia, Montenegro or even Serbia, Bulgaria, or Romania, which have started to be visited by more and more Albanians recently.

Turkey and Greece, the two top holiday destinations for Albanians

Turkey and Greece are two countries which are at the top of the list of destinations that Albanians choose for their holidays. This is confirmed, at least, by tour operators. According to them, the packages which have been recently offered by these two countries are not only attractive for Albanians in terms of price, but they also serve as an attraction in terms of the aspect of neighboring relations and traditional friendship that Albania has with these two countries. Meanwhile, tour operators also add that the drop in the cost of packages affected by the crisis that tourism saw in general in these two countries in the past few years, had an effect. We may recall the fact that Russian tourists abandoned Turkey when the relations between the two countries became tense, but also as a result of the coup d’etat happened there last year.

NOVELTY

One of the novelties that has been noticed among Albanians who decide to spend their holidays abroad is the fact that they buy their holiday packages in neighboring countries, where they are cheaper. They say that prices for these packages are up to 50% cheaper in these countries and they see this as a very good opportunity to save some money. Here, we can mention countries such as Kosovo or Macedonia, where tour operators there offer cheaper deals for the same destinations and this also seems to entice Albanians from Albania. They rather prefer to depart from Skopje or Pristina for their holidays in exchange of an all inclusive package toward their favorite destinations which cost cheaper.

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