The Albanian capital hosted the International Tourism Forum “The Future of Environmental Sustainable Tourism in Albania (FESTA), an event organized by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment of the Republic of Albania in collaboration with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) under the special care of the Prime Minister of Albania, Mr. Edi Rama, and Secretary – General of the UNWTO, Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili. The three-day forum brought together more than 300 representatives from 38 countries, a broad discussion platform of policymakers, entrepreneurs, tour operators and all the contributors to the important hospitality and leisure industry.

In his opening remarks at the event, Prime Minister Rama said:

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“An Albanian’s house is the dwelling of God and the guest.” This is stipulated by the ancient code of Albanian laws based on honor and hospitality, the first known codification of Albanian customary law, written five centuries ago, and since God shows up on your doorstep through the guest who knocks on your door, and the latter is the master of the house as long as he stays with us.

Therefore, dear friends from 38 countries around the world, attending this International Tourism Forum, feel completely at home in our house.

Enjoy as much as you can the extreme difference between the stereotype of Albania portrayed in your media and the perception of your own senses about a completely different country you are visiting today.

I assure you that the country you see is the real one, whereas the country as hotbed of crime, mafia, drugs, prostitutes, environmental pollution, extreme poverty, thieves and beggars on every street or homeless people sleeping on the streets is partially a country now almost a thing of the past and partly a country that they keep alive by some local and foreign individuals through their malicious and speculative rhetoric.

I’m going to share with you actually one of the episodes of those three that I’m going to mention today.

Sometime ago, a senior official from a EU member state, a wealthy and well-informed country, landed in Tirana. I was in my car and I received a text message from the director of the airport’s VIP lounge as follows: “Please call me. It is urgent.” I thought it was a bomb threat or a serious fire. Why should he talk with me? It had never happened before.

I call him and he says: “Mr. Prime Minister, sorry to bother you, but I contacted all the chains of hierarchy and nobody is capable of solving the problem and therefore I need your advice.”

“What’s wrong?”-I asked him.

“A high-level official is refusing to enter Tirana,” – he said.

“What do you mean by saying he doesn’t want to enter Tirana? Has he arrived in Tirana?” – I asked him.

“Yes, he has landed in Tirana along with an extended delegation comprising dozens of people, yet he is refusing to head to Tirana. What should I do?”

“Why?” -I asked.

“Because he doesn’t feel safe and is asking for armored vehicles and armed guards,” – he said.

I asked what the status of this important individual was and he was normally an official who should be escorted by the National Guard.

I told him that National Guard troops will be dispatched.

“They are here,”- he replied, – “but he wants them to be armed with automatic rifles, not just with handguns.”

“Well, tell him that we don’t offer such a special service and he can go back,” I told him.

It was 45 minutes later that he texted, telling me that “this EU official is already in Tirana.”

Next morning, this very official met me in my office. I don’t know whether he was aware of the fact that I was informed about what happened a day earlier, but the first sentence he uttered was: “I owe you an apology, Mr. Prime Minister.” “What about?”- I asked him.

“Look” – he went on saying – “I have been travelling and visiting too many countries. I am a citizen of the world. Never, ever have I found myself in such a huge gap between what I thought Albania was and what I see Albania actually is.”

“Don’t worry!”-I told him. “This is the case with everyone visiting Albania.”

“No, no”- he said. And by the way, I am not going to provide more information, but he is a Muslim Socialist. “By the way, I was walking in Tirana downtown last night. It is so impressive, so European and so Mediterranean. You feel as if you are in Italy and I didn’t encounter a single face-veiled woman. Can you imagine it?” – He told me.

“Yes, this is because there are no face-veiled women in Albania, except for a few girls wearing head scarves and we definitely respect them,” I said.

“And before coming to meet you, I visited the Ministry of Interior and people spoke English there. Can you imagine it?” he told me.

“Let’s stop here and I want you to express this euphoria and enthusiasm about Albania once you return back to your country and tell people there that Albania is a completely different country from what you thought,” I said.

“Of course, I will. I will come back together with my wife and my friends,” he replied.

And by the way, he pursues a very tough migration policy and he said absolutely nothing about all these. He was not enthusiastic about Albania at all. He simply informed his citizens that he had called on Albania to strongly combat crime and illegal emigration.

I asked the Albanian Ambassador to that country to text and tell him that “the Premier is waiting for your apology as you failed to keep your promise.”

And his reply was indeed something I will never forget.

“Please send my best greetings to your Prime Minister. He is an excellent man, but he is also a smart politician who realizes that this is just politics!”

How much we have left our past behind can be testified by an early and precious friend of Albania, whom we have the privilege of having him as our guest of honor, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, who visited Albania 10 years ago, when I had just been elected, and today I told him: we both had black hair back then.

“Dank u wel” Frans and I very much you have enjoyed Tirana’s transformation since your last visit.

Another witness to the tremendous difference between the Albania one perceives in distance and the one experienced up close is the BBC’s renowned traveler and TV host Bettany Hughes, who deserves  the most heartfelt thanks from the Albanian people for the faithfully fantastic presentation she made about this country, in its famous show “Treasures of the World” and by saying that she deserves appreciation from the Albanian people, I do so because Albanians are not in their heyday in the country of the BBC and the truth about our country can be liberated from the black cloud if misinformation or disinformation only by increasing the opportunities of foreign audiences to experience firsthand through tourism, to take the trouble to come and experience it firsthand.

This is my second episode. My first contact with free media happened in the early 90s.

I was abroad and applied for a British visa. My application was turned down. The friend who invited me to London was very angry and said “Why don’t you write an article for The Guardian?”, and I said “Wow, for The Guardian?” Yes, definitely. He had some kind of influence and established contacts. I wrote an article for “The Guardian” about this experience, about the experience of being refused a British visa.

Back then, Great Britain was part of the European Union and it was in a better position.

I sent the piece of writing and I came back home very late that night. No cellular phones existed back then, but I had a telephone secretary. I pushed the button and listened to a female voice saying: “Mr. Rama, this is The Guardian speaking.  We need to talk with you as there are a couple of issues that we need to discuss and receive your approval for the story; first the title and an issue within the text of the story.”

I was surprised. I was used to a completely different way of dealing with truth, with copyright or the way of dealing with people’s opinions in this country, without imagining this apocalyptic time of today where you say something and you read something else completely.

However, I spoke to her the next day and she proposed a title that I found just fine; there was something very small to change in the story and I said: “I’m sorry; I don’t understand why you don’t publish it instead of wanting me to approve such things?

Since she had already read the article, she realized I was that “barbarian” who had just experienced the first taste of freedom and told me: “Welcome to the democratic world, Mr. Rama. This is called fact check and copyright.” Okay, great.

It was just a few months ago that the very same newspaper sent me a long feature story about Tirana as “a safe haven of money laundering in the continent.” The story contained a lot of incorrect information and fake information collected here and there and they kindly asked whether the Prime Minister wanted to include a sentence or a statement from him. My office replied: “The Premier is ready to speak with you, since your article contains a lot of incorrect information. Thank you for forwarding it.” My office provided them with a long list of facts and references.

The answer was quite interesting: “We will meet him sometime later, because the story is set to be published at 12:00 hrs on Friday.” And this story, containing all sorts of disinformation and incorrect information about our country, was published in the newspaper without checking any information, without the right to reply.

We wish to think that our civilization is evolving for the better.

Albania is definitely not a country immune to problems today. On the contrary, this country faces an uphill daily battle with inherited wounds.

Therefore we face a daily battle with inherited wounds, problems accompanying this new time, which is very challenging, and Albania, which may not yet be the country that offers what many Albanians, who choose to leave, wish for, but it is still apparently, but also in its essence,  a beautiful country, where hospitality is a religion, where safety and security are at a higher level for both local residents and visitors then in many wealthy EU countries.

I would like to thank and hail another guest of honor, a man credited with building one of the most genial works, in my view, the man in search for a position of Dubai on the tourism map out of nothing, and that man is dear Mohamed Alabbar, who is now in Albania to deliver on a major investment project that nobody would dare imagine it would ever happen just a few years ago.

I am very proud that Albania today is a country where one can take amazing countless pictures.

Around one fourth of the country’s territory now is a protected area. We have taken a huge step by declaring Vjosa River a national park that flows freely practically throughout the country. Just imagine a national park that runs through France. And we will continue moving forward in this direction.

Before I conclude, I would like to note that since we are on the eve of local elections, since the election campaign coincides with the sowing and planting season, we will decide to commit half of our campaign money to support this sowing and planting season.

I think this will be a zero carbon emission campaign for half of it.

Thank you very much!