Connecting the Upper Laberi area with the southern coastal areas and Albanian Riviera, a long-cherished and lifelong dream of local residents, is now becoming a reality thanks to the new road infrastructure projects. Two more roads, namely the segment linking Tepelene and the village of Lekdush, and the road linking Gusmar and Kuç, bring the mountainous areas closer to the coastal towns and cities, developing at the same time the infrastructure for combined tourism in the entire area.

“The entire Laberi area will now be complete in terms of infrastructure. Whole Upper Laberi area will be connected with the lowland and coastal areas and our goal is to support and promote development of mountainous and family tourism to make best use of the scenic natural landscapes, traditions, and culture and local culinary,” the Mayor of Tepelene Tërmet Peçi said.

PM Rama, who inspected the ongoing work to construct the two new roads as part of a tour to the area, highlighted the significant impact of the new roads for local farmers, who will now have access to easily transport their locally grown produce, including dairy products and meat, to the market especially during the summer tourism season.

The 10-km road between Gusmar and Kuç is a completely new segment that didn’t exist previously and was traversed by caravans of local residents with their animals only. “This has been a long-cherished dream by our ancestors that is becoming a reality today. Residents from whole Kurvelesh area used to travel to the coastal areas, but with caravan of animals only. The infrastructure has now been completely transformed,” Tepelena Mayor said.

 

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With the road linking Tepelene and Salari already complete, work is underway to construct the segment’s stretch to the region of Nivice. The government’s investment drive to build road infrastructure and support development of agritourism has brought optimism to emigrants who have already started to invest their savings to restore their private family homes and transform them into guesthouses.

“Once informed that the new road has been built, many emigrants from the area have returned back home to the village of Salari and they are investing in their homes. There are a high number of applications for agritourism businesses,” Mayor Peçi said.

“This area will soon explode with more agritourism facitilities and enterprises based on private family homes, the fantastic nature, traditions, heritage in livestock breeding and even polyphony. The change is obviously underway, yet it is at its very beginning. These are all embryos that will explode gradually to provide a bouquet of tourism offers from the whole area, which will soon enter into a fantastic interaction with the entire diversity of offers in Permet, Gjirokaster, Himare. Local residents will now be able to access the coastal areas in 30 minutes only.”