Prime Minister Edi Rama is in Vlorë today, where he held a meeting with local tour operators, who play a crucial role in the development of tourism and the regional economy. The discussion focused on the work done so far and the plans for the future, starting with preparations for the summer season of 2025, with the aim of making it even more successful.
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First of all, regarding the main topic for which we are here today, which is the tourism season, and one of the hottest issues in our relations with citizens during this period, as you have noticed, is the stress caused by the jungle of umbrellas and sunbeds. Despite the efforts made in recent years to regulate them, last year we observed that many of them were still on private property.
For this reason, and in collaboration with the mayors, under the leadership of the Mayor of Lezhë, who has created a very successful model on the Lezhë coastline, we have developed a new plan with a much clearer division and a much more reasonable balance between beaches managed by private tourist operators and public beaches that will be managed by the municipalities. Here, I would encourage everyone to follow the example of the municipality of Lezhë.
Secondly, and very importantly, we now need to agree on one thing: it is very good that you demand as much as possible. But for others, I would say we must be very honest—there is a big trick that you all do. A trick with the declaration of overnight stays. We have lowered VAT for years now, lower than any other country, at 6%, a rate that no other Mediterranean country or country in the region has. We lowered it to 6% precisely for you to declare. Now, there is a fantastic figure here that shows what you are actually doing. It shows that out of the 10 million 155 thousand foreign tourists who visited Albania, in 2023, we have 3 million 900 thousand declared overnight stays, which is a bit of a problem.
Secondly, get ready because by 2026, as we will introduce the digital platform e-visitors. After that, it will become impossible to bypass it for all hotel infrastructure, I’m talking about.
The next point is about parking. I’ve discussed this with some of the mayors. We have a new program from the Albanian Development Fund. We are working with Himara, with Vlorë, and with Lezhë. For Durrës, we want to build an additional parking infrastructure. An extra infrastructure that we have conceptualized, from an architectural perspective, to be an attractive one.
The influx of tourists is very large and will be even larger. We reached 12 million last year, and we may go up to 13.5 or 14 million—that’s a lot for a country with 2.4 million residents. But still, it’s part of the reality; we must handle it. The police have played a fantastic role in this effort, but now it’s time to minimize this. It’s another game now—there will no longer be any need for police presence at all, because the police will be everywhere, but digitally. There will be an eye that will observe the entire territory and inform the State Police and municipalities in real-time through Artificial Intelligence.
Finally, I want to specifically mention Vlorë, since we are here. The investment happening on the other side, going towards Radhimë, you have seen that it’s very, very positive, but the ambition is to extend it all the way to Orikum. We want to have an actual continuous line and also develop the Lungomare on the other side, so that we will have one of the longest promenades in Europe, creating much more space for development.
The airport’s runway, which was the most challenging part due to the geology, is almost completed. I believe that by the end of May, the runway will be finished.
The projects for Sazan and Zvërnec are in process. We will face many, many challenges because the demand to come to Vlorë and invest in Vlorë is very high.
Certainly, the impact of Vlorë extends to other areas as well.
Now, together with Durrës, we have a fantastic project that will finally start being realized with the expansion of the beach. In Durrës, we will expand the entire historical beach line by 100 meters.
Lezhë, which has always been seen as the province of tourism, is actually becoming one of the important centers, because there we also have some truly beautiful investments, both from local entrepreneurs who have developed their activities abroad and are now returning to invest, as well as from other investors.
So, now we are left with just Kavaja. The challenge is to include Kavaja and Fier in this network. Because Kavaja and Fier are the two remaining places, with Fier being even more important than Kavaja. Historically, the people of Fier have used the beach there. Meanwhile, Fier has a fantastic beach, and Kavaja also has a decent beach, but it’s always referred to as part of the Durrës beach.
So, these two beaches will very soon be on the path to becoming operational. In the Kavaja beach area, there are some very beautiful investments.
However, in Fier, we have another extraordinary project that we will soon present. The project involves private entrepreneurship, but also a lot of work that we have done there to anticipate it by building the connecting infrastructure.
Velipoja is under development and progress.
As for Saranda, there’s nothing more to say because Saranda just needs to handle the impact. We are making significant investments with the mayor there, including the new promenade in Ksamil and a number of other projects. So, I believe that the EU accession will happen at the right moment. And then, after joining the EU, as the previous cases of Croatia, Slovenia, and other countries have shown, everything doubles—the value of investments immediately doubles, the value of properties doubles, and the flow of interest to come, live, work, and integrate with our life here from Europeans will increase significantly. So, these are more or less the things I wanted to say, and I thank you all very much.
