Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks during presentation of the cultural events calendar and local festivals during 2019 tourism season in Island of Lezha:

 

Hello everyone!

First of all, I would like to thank the hosts at renowned destination on Albania’s tourist map for sometimes now, but, for already known reasons, it was removed from that map for a certain period to return again on that map most recently thanks to the passion and strong will of the people who welcomed us today.

100 years ago, tourism in Albania was a rare phenomenon. Yet, in 1920, Albania had a calendar of events and a guide to tourist attractions that were offered to a small number of visitors who stopped by while on a trip to elsewhere, or who dared to explore our country. It was a tourist guide featuring the Roman thermal baths in Durres, or in Pogradec, an attraction in the city of Korça, Dajti Mountain, Theth, thermal spas in Elbasan or Kruja, along with the only 27 hotels operating back then in the whole territory of the country, as well as local festivals and cultural events taking place in these regions. Back then tourism was a very marginalized activity with little or no influence on the country’s economy, yet the sense to promote tourism potential and gather everything possible to collect them in a calendar available to every potential visitor.

Then everyone knows how things went following the war and it is known how they continued in the wake of the system change, a period of chaotic development with an incredible devastating power to the natural beauties and for many wonderful areas with tremendous tourism potential.

Though it has been badly damaged all over those years, however there is much more to carefully develop and to prevent mistakes of the past, just as it is of special importance that, already, in parallel with it all the efforts that are being made and added by tour operators – some of them are here and they have achieved professionalism levels worthy of the European market and are actually part of the European market – and on the other hand, the increasing efforts from the entrepreneurs who invest in tourism and have devoted their entire capacities to economic activity from tourism, the government’s effort is an added value  to do among others the work that needs to restore a lost foundation in the ruins that led to the post-war forgetfulness, developing a calendar of cultural, artistic, local traditions as an integral part of the tourist season.

Albania is really a country blessed with sea, beaches, mountains and everything else constituting its corpus of natural beauty, but everyone is now increasingly realizing that building a success story in tourism is not that much but more than that. Creating an attracting power to tourists and visitors means something a lot more than what the country’s natural corpus offers as it is inextricably linked with history, customs, tradition, elements that have been overlaid to the country’s body as clothing, jewellery and ornaments which represent a very strong reason to explore this body.

We embarked on this initiative last year somehow fearing that this is an area we lack know-how on, but by looking and learning from others’ experience and clearly figuring out that it was an indispensability, we launched it and I believe it represents the first experience benefiting the tourist activity, but we also learned and understood and we will go on this year hoping that everything we have already learned will be reflected. At the same time, wishing that the message will be also conveyed to other operators, entrepreneurs and the communities that this is a calendar that should increasingly be the synthesis of the self-organized events and not events organized by government.

Of course, the government and the relevant ministries should never withdraw from taking part in this series of events, instead they should be always there to ensure support for such events so that main pillars of the cultural and artistic calendar stand out gradually, yet enriching this calendar with locally organized events is a must.

The have decided to release the events calendar right here at the “Hunters Club” in Lezha and we are pleased to help the Hunters Club promote as the first of its kind ever launched in Albania back in the ‘30s near to Albania’s first protected zone, which is the area where we are today. It is a beautiful parable of the possibility of harmonizing nature in a protected area with the need to create a resting and accommodating facility inside the protected area with an absolutely distinct quality and in full harmony with nature.

I believe that as the data show, the number of tourist arrivals in the first four months of this year, as well as during this month, keeps growing and the figures are encouraging. Earlier I was talking with one of the officials tasked with promoting and attracting international tourists and she said that the number of visitors from Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden is set to surge by 20% this year. While the number of Poles visiting Albania is expected to grow by around 40%. This are figures based on the contracts and bookings from the tour operators and not on the optimistic projections. In March alone, the number of international visitors to Albania grew by 10 percent and almost by 10 percent in April too.

These are meaningful data and as the figures proved us right when speaking about the tourism’s extraordinary potential for the national economy, also for the fact that its promotion is much more complex than simply promoting a country with a seaside, so I am convinced that time will prove us right for added value in increasing the number of tourists through this cultural and artistic calendar.

Time proved us right about the whole added value of the National Urban Renaissance Programme and it suffices to see what is going on in Korça, what has started happening in Berat or Gjirokaster too. New guesthouses are being opened on daily basis and the number of visitors keeps growing, even after the tourism season is over. Just a day ago, I was asking about a group of international friends who wished to stay in Berat, but no accommodation place was to be found despite the Minister’s intervention, who happens also to be MP from that constituency, in order to accommodate them. It was absolutely impossible.

I am pleased to say this because, fortunately, it seems that the artificial recent uproar has had no impact of whatsoever on tourism to date. On the contrary, we are becoming a country offering tourism of protests. It could be one of the attractions, because since the protests take place at a certain time and certain places, despite the whole setting designed to impress people they still remain very limited and as such they could well include in the tourist calendar, offering and inviting visitors to see and experience first-hand a protest, although they should also consider the risk of being counted as one of protesters to increase number of participants artificially.

I am also pleased we have already seen the initial positive effects of all tax incentives, with the VAT rate on hotels cut to 6% only, which I believe it has proved to be a success story, although we still need to agree that VAT was reduced to 6%, but we can’t tolerate informality because the measure to cut VAT was designed precisely to fight informality.

On the other hand, we are also aware that a lot of time has been wasted and no talk about a five-star Albania was possible as it is being discussed intensively in the last 2-3 years. Although it will take time, the initial five-star hotels are now a reality. The five-star hotels are now a reality in contracts and transformations are underway as a number of requests have been forwarded.

Finally, few days ago we concluded the not so easy negotiation procedure to contract the new Milot – Balldren road segment, a very important project for the whole area.

Process is also underway on construction of Shëngjin – Velipoje road and the due funding has been provided and work will kick off in next few months as it is a project due to be co-funded with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, if not wrong, and the procedural steps take time for the whole required documentation to be provided.

These are two important road projects that will complete in next few years and will become a reality to provide better connectivity and provide new breath and opportunities for the coastal town of Shengjin.

We will have to be careful and we are working intensively and a decision by the National Territorial Council will be made soon regarding the procedure on further development of the coastal area, not just this area, because unfortunately we have seen enough and excessive cases of historical mistakes, so to say, concerning the landscape in the construction of hotel structures as well as actions cannot be justified with irresponsibility in terms of granting permission for development forms that are incompatible with what normally is needed.

Should this whole area would have developed just like this investment here and instead of high-rise senseless structures along this fragile coastline this model was to be chosen instead then this would be one of the most frequented tourist destinations.

Thank you very much and I hope you will forgive me for speaking so long. Thank you very much!