Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at the signing ceremony of the agreement with Marriott Group to open hotel in Tirana:

 

I honestly delighted to be here to finalize an operation, which largely seemed to be a mere fantasy long time ago, and that is about the Marriot International entering Albania by opening a Marriott International hotel in Tirana.

It is the fruit of a long-time effort in all aspects to add a new dimension to our tourism industry and provide the conditions for the large operators of this industry to enter Albania and make sure that Albania no longer remains the only country without truly luxury five-star hotels. We rank the region’s last for the number of true five-star hotels.

Therefore, this is a very joyous moment.

Marriott International needs no introduction. It is a world-renowned brand. It is the world’s biggest hotel company, which will join the National Arena project, already an integral part and will provide whole National Arena complex a more attractive and more spectacular dimensions.

We started off our day today with the Summit of Tourism Investors. The signing ceremony of the agreement between Marriott International and a flagship company of the Albanian entrepreneurship. ALbStar, is set to be held a little later. Soon we expect another agreement on a Hayat hotel to be signed with another internationally renowned hotel brand that no one had ever imagined it may enter Albania until recently.

More companies will follow the suit in the future. We are confident because these are all operations underway and there is no reason for them to fail and not finalize successfully.

I want to emphasise a single fact. Many try to comment our focus on the five-star hospitality industry backwards, claiming this is a policy that favours the rich and a handful of people.

Indeed, quite the opposite is true. The five-star hospitality tourism offers a much stronger contribution and impact on the tourism industry as a whole and the country’s mainstream economy than the low category of the hospitality industry and impact on the country’s image, which is crucial to the tourism industry, higher spending levels, the contribution to employment, quality of job positions, the salary level and the culture it introduces into a sector, where the hospitality culture is essential.

So, the fie-star Albania will be completely from the Albania that had no true five-star hotels for a long time. Of course it will be not a short way. It will take a lot of hard work. It will take time, but we are talking about major investments with a direct impact on the national economy.

I would like to express my appreciation to all of those helped in finalization of this operation and particularly Silvia, who initially showed up in Tirana in a Mata Hari-like style. Thanks to the first fact-finding trip by Marriot’s Silvia – she has become a very popular figure in Albania’s tourism industry – and thanks to the Minister’s perseverance later and, of course, thanks to AlbStar company’s vision and willingness we are just a few minutes far from signing an agreement, which for Albanian tourism is an accord that marks a moment to be remembered.

Thank you all!