350,000 Kosovo citizens have visited Albania during August

Tourism Minister Klosi has called for strengthening the relationship with Kosovo's fellow citizens, who, according to him, belong to the Albanian coast.

“Today, September 28th, we have 65 percent foreign visitors who visited Albania compared to 2019. In August, Albania was visited by over 600 thousand foreign visitors, marking 40-45 per cent compared to 2019, as no other country. We managed to catch a new market, which has to be seen with a lot of rigorousity for 2021x1>, the minister Klos said.

During his discussions with tour operators, concerns arose, and one of them was the problem of scarce accommodation spaces and lack of communication with Balkan partners.

I think 2020 witnessed the big problem that we have with our capacities, testified that in August on the beach area only with domestic tourism and patriotic tourism we were in hotels of a quality. So, he proved we have no capacity. 2020 testified that we have had severe lack of communication with our regional partners. Northern Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Eastern European countries that are our main goal and, of course, strengthening relations with our countrymen, the citizens of Kosovo, who already have Albania's coast as their own”, has stressed Klosi.

But, 2021 comes with challenges first to regulate the operator market. According to Blendy Klosi, untested and unqualified exhibitors will be revised next year to have a successful tourist year.

Tourism experts, however, say Albania has no accurate figures in tourism. They consider the figures a game of statements coming to millions of tourists coming to Albania.

“The government uses the term “visitor”, not “turists”. The World Tourism Organization recognizes tourists who spend more than 24 hours. This is the game of the numbers that keeps going. We don't have an exact balance of figures, but we just have people walking around”, says the chairman of the Hoteleri-Tourism Association in Albania, Zach Topuzi, adding that there are no clear questionnaires on the border for why someone is entering Albanian territory and that they are not all asked and therefore the figures are not real.

State police in Albania, competent for entrances and exits on Albanian territory, says all Albanian or foreign citizens are questioned at border crossing points in Albania for the final destination or goal of travel.

All persons at the entrance and exit of the Republic of Albania are subject to minimal and comprehensive border verification, including verification of the final destination and the purpose of the trip. Exception from the general rules of border verification quoted above have only separate categories of persons and tools”, state police sources in Albania stress.