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Albanian Tourism between Statistics and Reality

28 09 2007  Confusing statistics about tourism cannot hide the grim reality facing many who are trying to make a living from Albania’s holiday industry.

By Ben Andoni in Tirana

“You pass the tunnel, after that take a turn when you see a cabin in the street. Further on, there is a disco, ask for me there, everyone knows me” says Afrim the owner of a small, old-style inn in the city of Vlora, on Albania’s southern coast.

Former clients and word of mouth are the only ways for him to attract potential visitors. He knows that tradition is treasured, so the ambience of his place is simply built around a rural fireplace and carpets.

Like him, the majority of those working in Albania’s tourism industry attract their customers mostly by chance and only during the high season, when the coast from Saranda in the south to Velipoja in the north is populated by holidaymakers from Kosovo, Macedonia and the Albanian Diaspora.