Rama's ultimatum to free public spaces/ Tourism Expert for CNA: Action delayed

2025-07-07 14:09:00, Aktualitet CNA

Rama's ultimatum to free public spaces/ Tourism Expert for CNA: Action

And while the 2025 summer tourist season has begun with more public spaces for citizens, the latest action taken by municipalities on the orders of Prime Minister Rama to free up public spaces from businesses has not been viewed positively by Tourism expert Fjorida Zani. According to her, this has to do with the image that these actions create in the eyes of foreign tourists.

"The action to free up public spaces is not at the right time"

"Removing chairs, tables or street vendors is not a good image for tourists who see them, because even when they see the police on the street, they are surprised and say what happened. Because it is not normal in European countries to create checkpoints everywhere and it is not a good impact. It would be good if the measures were taken during the winter season and not repeated or continued for next year," said the expert.

As for meeting the conditions for the development of elite tourism in Albania, Zani says that our country is still many steps away from achieving this goal.

"Albania is far from elite tourism"

"In Albania, the lower class comes and very few middle class. Looking at the tourists who stay in our country, we see that they do not spend much in bars and restaurants, but in supermarkets and here we clearly see that the tourists are of a low level. I believe that we are not ready for elite tourism. We need a lot of work, at least I think a twenty-year period, for us to attract elite tourists, because we do not have the infrastructure in the first place, which is the main thing for tourism, both in terms of roads, maritime infrastructure, and air infrastructure. Because this elite tourism that we want, they can come by yachts, because we do not actually have a proper port, we definitely have one in Vlora but not for the conditions that they want."

Even this tourist season, one of the main problems businesses are facing is the lack of staff, which according to expert Zani is related to young people leaving the country./ CNA