Number of holiday makers from Kosovo is dropping

“In the past, they used to book their hotel rooms at the beginning of May. Holiday makers from Kosovo used to occupy them until the end of the holiday season. Meanwhile, this year, we didn’t have all the rooms booked…”. These were the words of a hotel and restaurant owner in Durres, who spoke to Albanian Free Press and who also, owns a private beach in front of his hotel. But, this hotel owner also expresses his concern about the fact that the revenues that he has made this season were less than half of the revenues that he made last year. According to him, this situation relates to the decline in the number of holiday makers from Kosovo, because according to him, prices have not changed at all. This phenomenon has also been recently confirmed by the official data of the Institute of Statistics, according to which, last year, the number of holiday makers from Kosovo was 21% lower than last year. In other words, one in five holiday makers from Kosovo no longer chooses Albania as his holiday destination. In terms of figures, last year, the number of holiday makers from Kosovo who visited Albania from January to October was 2 million. Meanwhile, from January to October this year, the number of holiday makers from Kosovo was 1.6 million. This is a significant drop, which has continued throughout the year. In the month of October, this drop was 0.4%. According to experts of tourism, this year’s trend may also be attributed to the fact that buses filled with holiday makers from Kosovo were not allowed to enter Durres beach. This prompted a big debate at the time. Another factor which may have had an impact on this negative trend was the month of Ramadan or the electoral period in June of this year. However, previous electoral experiences have not led to any drops in the number of holiday makers from Kosovo. Experts suggest that Kosovars may be looking for other holiday destinations now, especially in countries of the region, such as Greece, who have many affordable packages. Meanwhile, the number of holiday makers from Macedonia has registered an increase. This year, the number of holiday makers from this country registered a growth of 14%. Last month, the number of visitors from this country saw an increase of 34%.

Number of Polish holiday makers increases by 75%

Their numbers have seen a real boom this year. They are holiday makers from Poland and their numbers increased by 75% for the period from January to October 2017. Expressed in figures, during the period in question, their number was 113 thousand, while last year, their number was 65 thousand. Around 10 thousand of them visited the country in October this year, showing that this category of holiday makers has seen a significant growth during this year. Representatives of different tour operators in the country say that this increase relates to the fact that many tour operators in the country have promoted Albania a lot. On the other hand, there are also people from other European countries who have chosen our country as their favorite holiday destination. This is the reason why they visit Albania every year. Among them we can mention tourists from Germany, but also those from Switzerland, who this year registered a growth of 50% compared to last year.

More and more Albanians prefer foreign destinations

The fact that more and more Albanians are traveling abroad for their holidays, is indicated by the recent data issued by the Institute of Statistics. According to these data, the number of Albanians traveling abroad has increased by 11.3% this year. In the month of October this year, the number of Albanians who traveled abroad was 430.505. “Compared to the month of October 2016, this number has increased by 7.6%”, experts of statistics explain. “Meanwhile, the number of Albanians who have exited the territory of the country in the year to October was 4.368.360, 5.8% more than the same period a year ago”, experts of statistics also say.

VISITS

Foreigners visit Albania mainly for personal reasons, while fewer visit the country for holidays. Meanwhile, there are also foreigners who visit the country for health reasons or religious reasons. According to the data issued by the Institute of Statistics, out of 4.5 thousand foreigners who visited the country in the year to October, half of them came here for holidays. Meanwhile, 460 of them have visited the country for health reasons, whereas 502 of them for religious reasons. On the other hand, the number of daily visits in the country is also high with 265 thousand during this year.