Major investments in the town of Permet over past few years and a series of projects to boost tourism have lured a growing number of migrants to return back home and explore investment opportunities in building guesthouses and other tourist accommodation facilities, turning tourism into the cornerstone of their economic development. Preserving the tradition is the main goal of these investments. Such is the case of young Arbër Goga, who has taken the initiative to buy an old typical Permet building and transform it into a traditional guesthouse.

During his visit to Permet, PM Edi Rama visited Arber’s guesthouse located at the town’s historic centre. “This is like a swallow signalling arrival of spring if local citizens feel and follow suit,” the Premier said.

Arber explains that the property is a very old house located in the former neighbourhood of rich merchants, featuring a typical and characteristic architecture. Arbri has been working in the tourism sector while abroad and he thinks that he will earn a future by investing in this sector. “It’s been around 3 and a half years since I came back from Italy with the idea to develop tourism because it’s the sector I’ve worked on. I have been living here in Permet, a wonderful town and one of the few Albanian cities featuring such an incredible architecture. This was a merchant’s house in the late 1800s and early 1900s, as it was the case of this whole neighbourhood where the richest people of the town used to reside. It is one of the oldest properties in town that has remained intact,” he said.

The government head praised Arber’s ideas and investment, saying that work is underway on a special programme to provide financial support entrepreneurs and households to invest in guesthouses and other accommodation facilities in urban areas.

“We are mulling over a special programme, because we have already launched a programme to support a large number of farms, guesthouses, agriprocessing industry and building greenhouses, but no programme is yet available for such investments in urban areas. This traditional houses here and elsewhere in Gjirokaster and Berat, which are a tremendous cultural asset, need support programmes. It is a significant help. With a zero profit tax rate and by making available a partial support programme, we think it will help a lot. We are working on that. This is also to encourage other people who own such properties and who wish to transform them, but still lack the necessary financial means and provide him a percentage of funding according to certain conditions and criteria,” Rama said.

The Premier announced that government is developing a programme to cut profit tax rate to zero and apply a reduced six percent VAT rate only.

Once a ghost and a nearly deserted spot, the town of Permet has already become one of the country’s most popular destinations.

Since it was declared a protected historic site, the town is today an area with tremendous economic and tourism development potential.

Prime Minister Edi Rama inspected Sunday the ongoing works to renovate the existing traditional houses as part of a revitalization project designed to boost tourism development and preserve the precious cultural heritage of Permet.

The historic centre of Permet is part of the World Bank-funded Project for Integrated Urban and Tourism Development with an estimated total cost of 71 million dollars. The town’s historic centre lies at the foot of the mountain and it includes all existing buildings, mainly in Shënkoll (Varrosh) and Teqe neighbourhoods, which with their buildings’ structure and cobblestone streets bears the town’s most ancient traces.

Socialist MP Mirela Kumbaro, also former Culture Minister, said that declaration of the town as a historic centre gave a great instant impetus to development of tourism in the area.

“We declared Permet a protected historic centre in 2016 after studying the whole area and the decision coincides with the launch of the Urban Renaissance Programme. We figured out that the area offers tremendous potential as a future popular tourist destination and a series of projects were launched to revitalize the town’s architecture by preserving everything traditional. This is the reason why this area was included in WB-funded project together with Gjirokaster,” she said.

The town’s historic centre features a number of old buildings and religious sites, including the Saint Friday church built in 1776 and declared a first category monument of culture; the 19th century orthodox church of Saint Nikolas (Shen Koll).