Albania will be showcased in a stunning and original performance at ITB Berlin 2025, the world’s leading platform for the travel and tourism industry, highlighting all that the country has to offer.
Among 190 participating countries and 5,600 exhibitors, Albania will be in the global spotlight as the guest of honor. Represented by tour operators, hoteliers, tourism experts, and partners, Albania will present its distinctive experiences, emotions, and flavors under the “All Senses” logo. Through a variety of activities, discussion panels, and meetings, Albania will demonstrate why it is an increasingly popular and attractive tourist destination.
Prime Minister Edi Rama is in Berlin, joined by the Minister of Tourism and Environment Mirela Kumbaro and the Minister of Economy, Culture, and Innovation Blendi Gonxhja, to present the Albanian government’s initiatives and achievements that have elevated the country’s tourism sector to a new level, with competitive standards and a promising development outlook.
With this year’s fair theme, “The World of Travel Lives Here,” exhibitors, visitors, and traders from across the globe will showcase their finest offerings at the “City Cube Berlin.” In parallel with the exhibition, the ITB Berlin Convention, the leading tourism industry event, will take place, where experts will discuss emerging trends and innovations shaping the future of travel and tourism.
Before the fair’s official opening, a press conference was held, where Prime Minister Rama delivered a speech and later answered questions from journalists.
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
“Thank you very much! It’s truly a pleasure to be here at an event that just a few years ago would have been hard to imagine for us. It is also a real pleasure to bring a little bit of sunshine from Albania today, because hosting this fair under the gray skies of Berlin would have been a bless. Of course, it’s a great pleasure to quote one of the largest press outlets in Germany, BILD, which not too long ago reserved less-than-pleasant articles about us. BILD writes that Albania is no longer an unknown destination but is expected to become a hot spot for those seeking sun and beaches in 2025—and there’s even more than that.
Based on the United Nations tourism report, Albania is currently the fastest-growing tourist destination in the world, and we also have the fastest-growing airport in Europe so far.
Meanwhile, we’re finally seeing German tourists arriving. A few years ago, someone told me that the day German tourists would come to Albania would be the moment when your progress would be irreversible. I asked, ‘How is that possible?’ He replied, ‘Because German tourists are the most stubborn; first, they need to understand where they are going,’ which doesn’t surprise me because I know how Germans operate. But then, once they come, they continue to stay, which is a very strong testimony of the change. We are really happy to see the figures reflecting the increase in German tourists. From about 120,000 a few years ago to 374,000 last year.”
Of course, we are very ambitious about attracting more and more German tourists. On the other hand, I would like to share that international visitors spent a total of 4.5 billion dollars in Albania in 2023, and this figure reached 4.8 billion dollars in 2024, in a country with a GDP of 25 billion. You know very well what this means.
However, I don’t want to take up too much of your time with this speech, as I think there will be questions and answers afterward. I don’t want to spoil the German clock, which is very difficult to integrate into our Balkan way of conversing. So, I am trying to be as good as possible here in Berlin. If we were in Albania, I would keep you here for hours to listen to what I have to say, but here, it’s a different story. Also, considering the moment you are going through in this country, it’s probably not a good idea to make you any more nervous. So, I’ll stop here, giving you a very simple data to help you understand where we come from. We were the North Korea of Europe during our lifetime. We were already grown-ups when our airport had only a few thousand passengers per year. And all those few thousand passengers had to be Marxist-Leninists to enter our country, and I’m talking until 1990. From our angle of the world, the DDR (East Germany) wasn’t a communist country but the other side of the same medal. We were completely isolated from all of Europe, both the West and the East. But since we had experienced something that no one in communist Europe had experienced, connections with the Chinese, and the Cultural Revolution, in Albania, we couldn’t grow beards. There was a barber shop at the airport, so tourists with beards, and by the way, they were Marxist-Leninists, couldn’t enter without first going through the barber. I’m not joking. So, even Karl Marx himself couldn’t enter Marxist Albania without shaving his beard first.
Today, our latest figure from 2024 is 11 million passengers who passed through Tirana’s airport, surpassing the numbers of Belgrade, which had been the largest typical airport in the Balkans for years. For the third consecutive year, and for several years now, we have remained in the top three in the World Tourism Organization rankings, alongside Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as the fastest-growing destination. But we didn’t have the World Cup, and of course, we didn’t have Mecca. So, if we exclude those two factors, I believe we are, as Germany once was in the World Cup, at the top. Thank you, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
***
– I am from Switzerland, and I don’t want to speak English. I would prefer to speak Swiss German. We have to accept speaking in a terrible language like English at an international conference. For Albania, tourism by bus is very important because people can also come by bus. But I hear that only the airports are increasing, and the airport doesn’t have sustainability. I think traveling by bus is much better. I would like to ask you what you think about land routes and ferry lines with Italy, and everything else related to greater sustainability. Also, I think we need to extend our holidays when we come to Albania; we should explore Europe and not just have 7-day vacations.
– Yes, we could stay the whole summer.
– Yes, yes, we should stay the whole summer in Europe. I think we should do that, and we need to do something to balance out these frequent flights.
– The question is about excellence, two aspects: one is sustainability, and the other is how you approach the destination.
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
Apologies for responding in the ‘terrible’ language you mentioned, in English, as I do not know your wonderful language, which sounds as terrible to me as the worst noises when I hear it. However, I am sure it has its own musicality when you speak with your fellow Swiss citizens. I think you have a valid argument, but I must make another one to address yours. Today, as we speak, we have one of the largest parks, I believe the largest in the world, because it is the rarest, if not the only, national park that spans the entire country, and that is the Vjosa River National Park.
The Vjosa River was discovered by European citizens, environmental enthusiasts, as the last wild river in Europe, so we were urged to protect it, while we had been asking for a long time to protect it. What am I trying to say? I want to say that after you tamed all your rivers, you wanted ours to stay wild, so after you developed in every possible way, you wanted us to develop only in the way you think is right. I’ve shared a bit of history, so please don’t ask Albanians to refrain from flying, because for half a century, we weren’t even allowed to look at an airplane while you were flying and enjoying it. We walked or wandered around our country, which had turned into a prison.
To conclude my response, I am absolutely convinced that, just like what is happening today, it will grow even more, with more Swiss, more Germans, more Israelis, and more tourists from Northern Europe coming to us for the beauty of the mountains, for the extraordinary pleasure of climbing them, for the beauty of other adventures, rafting in rivers, and so on. Albania has a place for everyone. It is a very small country, but unlike Switzerland, it is much more diverse, so we have what Switzerland has, but imagine if Switzerland had what the Mediterranean has. You would be incomparable. We will be incomparable sooner rather than later because we have Switzerland, we have the Mediterranean, we have everything that a human being could want, and it’s all within a very short distance—28,000 kilometers—but with the greatest diversity; we have two seas, nine rivers, many mountains, many valleys, many lakes, and as the cherry on the dessert , we have the Albanians. And we are never as boring as the Swiss.
– My question was about the land route.
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
“I answered you. It’s coming slowly, step by step, in a sustainable way. For now, we are quite inclined to conquer the skies. As for the land, we invite you to conquer it.”
– I am from Passport News Israel, which is the press outlet for travel in Israel. My question is for your excellency, Mr. Prime Minister. During the war, you expressed great care for the Middle East and the crisis, but you were very vocal in support of Israel. Meanwhile, there is now a direct flight route to Israel, which you announced through social media. We are very grateful for your voice. Israel is, in fact, in love with Greece. Will Albania become the new Greece, and if so, how will you shift the tourists from there to your country? What are the next steps Albania must take?
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
I must tell you, we do not complain when others are in love with others, but you should know, if you don’t know already, and everyone should know that Albania was the only country in Europe after World War II that had more Jews than before it, and we have an extremely clean record, with not a single Jew being handed over to the Nazis. This is something recognized by the state of Israel, and Albania has been given the title of ‘Righteous Among the Nations.’
What is even more important is that many of the protectors of the Jews were Muslims, and there are two Jewish names that appear on the list of those who perished in Bergen-Belsen, in the Bergen-Belsen camp. In fact, they were not Jews; they were Albanians because when the Nazis came to take these Jews with these names at their homes, the elder of the house told them to wait because he would hand them over peacefully, and he gave his two sons to protect the Jews. What you mentioned about Albanity, about being Albanian, is something deeply rooted, and that is why we are the best place for tourists, because in our Constitution, in the Comon Law, there is a very important sentence: ‘The home of an Albanian belongs to God and the guest. Every guest represents God.’
So, if you want to feel like God feels, come to Albania. If you want to go to a place where you think even taxi drivers are gods, go to Greece. But if you want to feel this way, come to Albania, and we eagerly await having as many Jews as possible in Albania. We know for us it is love, for you it is also money, but it’s better to come to Albania. You will save more than in Greece, and you will have everything you have in Greece with many more pluses.
– Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Andrea Sholz, a freelance aviation journalist. Your Excellency, you mentioned that aviation is very important for Albania. What are the government’s plans to further stimulate aviation services or airlines to come to Albania?
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
Thank you very much! First of all, very soon we will open a new airport, and by the way, it will be managed by the Munich airport. So, we firmly believe there is space for more, because the capital’s airport is the one with the fastest growing in Europe, but it is already overcrowded. Imagine 11 million passengers in a country with 2.5 million inhabitants—that’s an extraordinary number. The new airport we will open this year is in the south, and it practically responds to the needs of tourists who go towards the Ionian Sea and the southern part of our country, where there is a lot to see.
Also, that’s where the most luxurious 5-star resorts are being developed. We have another smaller airport in the north, and we’re planning a fourth one in the far south, practically opposite Corfu, because there is a lot of congestion at the Corfu airport, and we’ve realized there is a significant demand for a small seasonal airport in the southernmost part. On the other hand, we have quite a few airlines coming, and many more will come. We are in talks with the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States to have direct flights to the United States. Soon, I hope we will also have Qatar Airways, and we also have flights from the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. So, pretty much, whenever you want to come to Albania, there are many ways. Also, we have a very affordable airport. Years ago, it was very expensive, but now it’s quite affordable. It’s very easy to use. Many people from the region come to Tirana to fly from there, and practically, it’s the only airport in the region that is open 24 hours, 7 days a week.
During the summer, there is no break at any moment. Meanwhile, we’ve implemented one of the most modern passport control systems there, which ensures you don’t wait in line. It’s entirely digital. It was one of the first airports in Europe to have this passport control system. It’s a system without human presence—you simply place your passport, and you pass through. This is the big picture. We also have our own airline, which is still small, but we have the ambition for it to grow even more.
