"Albania, the Maldives of Europe"/ Close to 10 million tourists throughout 2023

2024-01-02 08:30:00, Kulturë CNA

"Albania, the Maldives of Europe"/ Close to 10 million tourists

The year 2023 was "golden" as far as tourism is concerned. According to the calculations made by the Minister of Tourism, during the last 12 months almost 10 million tourists have arrived in our country, this is a historical figure for our country.

Albania experienced its best tourism year in post-transition history. From north to south, on the beaches, in the mountains, in the historical cities, in bars and restaurants, everywhere you encountered tourists from different nations.

INSTAT data show that the arrival of foreign citizens in our country only during the month of August, which was the peak of the tourist season, was around 2 million foreign citizens, or 18.3% more than August of the previous year. The growing flow of foreign nationals started in June with over 1 million arrivals, reaching 1.77 million in July and crossing the 2 million threshold for the first time in August.

INSTAT data showed that in August 2023, Europe had the highest number of foreign nationals entering Albania with 1,951,489 nationals, followed by America and East Asia/Pacific, respectively with 40,106 and 12,335 nationals.

Other data from the Ministry of Tourism show that citizens from Kosovo continue to account for the majority of arrivals in Albania, with around a third. This year, for the first time, the Italians came second with about 10%, followed by the other countries of the region, Montenegro and North Macedonia. As foreigners flocked to Albania, there were not a few Albanians who chose to spend their holidays abroad.

INSTAT reported that the exits of Albanian citizens from the territory of Albania during the month of August 2023 were 842,940. Compared to August 2022, this indicator has increased by 8.9%.

During the last two decades, the contribution of Albania's tourism and travel sector to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased steadily and reached more than 10%. This has raised hopes that tourism will further increase economic development, creating jobs and generating income.

Looking back, 2019 was Albania's best year for tourism, with 6.4 million foreign visitors and $2.3 billion in sector revenue. However, the COVID-19 pandemic cut off tourism in Albania and not only, to rise to the highest figure ever reached at 202, referring to this, the future looked promising./ CNA