Prime Minister Edi Rama’s opening remarks at the second edition of the Mediterranean Tourism Fair 2018 at Expocity Tirana, a leading regional tourism event bring together tour operators from all over Mediterranean region ahead of new tourism season:

Hello everyone!

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation for the organizers of this trade fair, a not so unimportant element within a set of elements which make up the framework of the country’s efforts, best endeavours made by all tour operators and the government’s efforts to continuously promote development of a strategic sector like tourism and establishment of a genuine industry which still has much untapped extraordinary potential for growth.

Albania today is a country that enjoys a strategic position in terms of the tourists’ interest to visit it, but also in terms of an ever growing number of entrepreneurs and investors to take part in development of tourism and hospitality infrastructure.

Our region is one of the world’s main tourist destinations, accounting for around 25% of global tourism revenue with over 80% of visitors coming from Europe. This is the Mediterranean region. Meanwhile, as part of a smaller region of the Western Balkans, Albania is part of a fierce competition space and at the same time it should deal with the gap created over the years in relation to our tourism industry competitors.

However the country has experienced a significant annual growth in tourism revenue mainly due to a constant surge in foreign visitor numbers as the number of foreign tourists who visited Albania last year rose 10%. However, as the country’s tour operators confirm, the rise in foreign tourist arrivals is conditioned by our still narrow limit of our potential to meet the ever growing demand which well exceeds the today’s supply. That’s why increasing the tourism supply in order to match and meet the constant growing demand is a major challenge.

We are in the condition that every year we find more and more examples showing us that another gap exists between us and the future, which has to do with the fact that we have always seen tourism as a seasonal activity, mainly limited to seaside tourism during the summer months. Meanwhile, the truth is that a growing strong demand is being recorded for the adventure and mountain tourism in other mountainous and remote parts of the country. It is also pretty clear that the country’s potential with its geographical position combining seaside and mountain tourism attractions would allow us to expand tourism season beyond the high season during the summer months. To this end we have sought to address the gap in terms of the hospitality infrastructure and the high-end hospitality infrastructure in particular and that part of infrastructure Albania completely lacks, including the certified four-star and five-star hotels which account for the largest share of hospitality and tourism revenue.

Albania’s new tourism law offers a string of significant and competitive incentives in the whole Mediterranean region, as well as in our smaller Western Balkan region, specifically creating the conditions for tourism industry investors to see the country as a very attractive destination for investments in the high-end hospitality infrastructure.

Reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) to six percent only on all accommodation facilities has helped and will keep on significantly helping Albania’s tourism industry as a competitive sector that still needs and has the potential to gain ground in a competitive space, where are forced to deal with an inherited hiatus.

We are seeking to give a special attention and fresh impetus to a lacking component of this industry, which is agro-tourism. To this end we have developed and recently launched a project to promote and develop agribusiness and agro-tourism, in a program that will be financially supported by the Albanian government, the state budget and the European Commission’s support fund.

By the end of this month, the government will also make public the other aspect, the incentives we will create for all those entrepreneurs, individuals or households who plan to build agro-tourism structures in Albania’s rural areas.

We are convinced that promoting these investments and involvement of both private entrepreneurship and household initiative in the country’s various areas will definitely lead to creation of a chain reaction, to give a clear message of growth opportunity for the rural household economy in the countryside in all parts of the country which do not provide for the development of large-scale agriculture, where livestock breeding is not very lucrative, but, on the other hand, the wonderful nature and potential to provide hospitality in a tradition-based infrastructure and offer local produce represent a safe way-out of poverty, or unemployment in those areas. We can publicly state –not because we have seen it happen or we have witnessed the contribution to the agro-tourism in the neighbouring countries – but because we have countless examples here in Albania that how a situation apparently difficult, or geographical positions apparently impossible, various investors or emigrants returning to their homeland have succeeded in making a great leap by creating structures which are impressively attractive.

As we have earlier stated, the government is committed and is seriously prepared to, like never before, ensure a rise in several parameters of the tourism season, including cleanliness, security and new elements to provide opportunities for tourists to visit various attractions where local festivals will be organized, or where other activities of cultural and touristic character will be organized.

We strongly believe that although a significant number of young boys and girls will be recruited as part of this specific program to assist in this process, we will convey an added positive energy to all who will visit Albania. At the same time, we will be able to much more successfully cope with the challenge of some issues, still an open and inherited wound in terms of the tourist season, I repeat, from cleanliness to security and services, including medical emergencies, or other services, which we believe will be at a much better level than in the previous season.

I would like to repeat the Minister’s message to all accommodation and hospitality structures that have received some very clear news from the government through the Ministry of Tourism and the Environment. We won’t allow and punish the hospitality facilities along the coast dumping sewage into the sea. All the seaside accommodation facilities should take measures to equip the depuration systems and to ensure that whatever is necessary to their activity does not turn out to be a cost to the environment either for visitors or for our country’s image.

Of course we are aware that we may not be able to do everything in this direction during this season, but we must all be aware of who will be found in violation of this condition, will not be tolerated and risk losing all the expected income from the tourist season.

Thank you very much!