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10:32 POLITICS

Former president testifies today in the GJKKO for "Partizani"/ Berisha: Say what you want

In today's trial session on the merits of the "Partizani" ...

Are Albanians from Kosovo the beauty of Albanian tourism?

2026-07-19 18:22:00, Opinione Kreshnik Spahiu

Yesterday I was having coffee at Toni's, my friend in Golem, who has a hotel with 50 rooms.
The temperature was 34 degrees and we were standing in the lobby, where foreign tourists were coming and going. They were mainly from Poland and Romania.

What impressed me was that everyone came in with large bags of food and went up to the rooms. The food was varied, fruits and vegetables, but also ready-made meals, where the smell of meatballs and pies reeked.

I asked my friend: "Hey, what's going on? Do you have hotel rooms or apartments with kitchens upstairs?"
Tony frowned and, furious, replied:

"Stop it, stop it, brother, we complained in vain about the Kosovars when we said they bring bread with them to the beach. At least they ate a meal in the restaurant and, at most, they got fruit in the room. While with these Poles and Romanians, I've been paying the cooks for three months in vain, because no one comes to the restaurant."

After listening to him, I asked Toni again: “How many of these foreign tourists return to Albania?”
The answer was a resounding: “None.”

This story makes us reflect and reevaluate our brothers and sisters from Kosovo, who remained loyal to the Albanian coast for decades:

* They didn't abandon us when we underestimated them.
* They didn't leave even when we cheated them on prices.
* They came back even when we didn't provide the right services.
* They kept coming even when we ignored them.
They stayed loyal to us even when Montenegro or Croatia offered better quality, service and price than Albania.

Kosovo remained with Albania but never received the love it deserved.
Today, no foreign tourist returns to Albania for a second time, while hundreds of thousands of Albanians from Kosovo and Macedonia have bought their own beach houses and even opened businesses on the coast.

After three decades, Albania must apologize to Kosovo for the bad reception on the coast.
They were the first customers and they will remain the last. They taught us how to change and improve, with the principle that in tourism: “The client and the tourist are king and owner of the business.”

Clearly, the boys and girls from Kosovo know business, service and tourism better than the Albanians of Albania. Once, when they were traveling as visa-free tourists to America, we Albanians of Albania needed a visa to enter Drilon or Butrint. We were killed at the border, when they were doing European tourism.

After three decades, we should be ashamed that we have not appreciated them and given them the love they deserved.

We do not deserve elite tourism, but we must declare patriotic tourism a national priority.
10 million Albanians from the diaspora, Kosovo, Macedonia and every Albanian region should have a green card for facilities in Albanian tourism, anywhere on the coast.

Albania is beautiful, but its flowers and magic are the Albanians of Kosovo.

Maybe one day the Germans, the French, the Poles, the Dutch will all abandon us, but we will never be left alone, because even in the darkest days of Albanian tourism we will have Kosovar patriots.

Albania owes a lot to tourists from Kosovo.