Chloe: Sea is all Albanians

“Deti is of all Albanians and treat it as a common destination. We as an Albanian make a combination of nature around and around the mountains and the coast together, should be offered as a tourist package across the region”. So said Tourism and Environment Minister Blendie Klosi.

Klosi says this is the target of the Albanian government for the tourist season in Albania, while adding that the problem remains the limits due to pandemic and organised tourism brings more revenue.

The “in a normal tourism site should have started from April through late November, as offers and operators worked. Countries like Ukraine, Israel and Poland have begun bringing their charters, the weekend is in good tourist numbers, but the problem remains. The problem is organised tourism”, he said A2.

But despite problems Klosi stressed that it is working in the diplomatic field to make Albania a new regional market, where he announced that the first visit will be to Kosovo to open the border. According to him, this year's season will be better than 2020, thanks to open border policy.

“2021 will be much better than 2020, we will have higher figures than 2020, thanks to an open border policy and especially the region, Albanians believe will come to Albania and that will happen to Northern Macedonia and Serbia, and we will have a new market, the region market much better than 2020. Albania has good tourist offers, has favourable prices for this highly problematic business of 2021. I think we'll have a better tourist season. We're getting ready. We have two aspects; we work in the diplomatic field, mobility within Europe, due to pandemic. We will have visits to Kosovo as the first country to open the border not to create barriers at the border. A Pristina citizen or Prizren should have a feeling that a Tirana citizen has”.

Another facility for tourism, Klose cited free and unlimited functioning, as well as infrastructure investments. He said this sector is government priority in third term

The biggest balance we make is letting it work cheap. In all other countries there are restrictions, there are no restrictions in Albania, they do business without restrictions, they have resisted. The biggest help is investment in infrastructure that is extraordinary in the third term has one of its declared priorities. We don't just need accommodation facilities, ports and airports, by-pass, we need investments in infrastructure. They're substantial investments. Last year we managed to have diplomat communication with the Polish government, to have Albania without restrictions, Albania was among the few countries we had been reporting with tourism, I believe we would have considerable numbers. Israel is operating at full capacity. It's a state policy, but more business policy. Albania is attractive, has low prices and numbers of pandemic and quiet policies on the border. Tourism is based on detail, it's not only sea, we're a popular destination for tourist operators”.

Klosi stressed that it is working on drafting a strategy to make Albania a champion of tourism in the Balkans, while calling on tourist operators to manage beach stations, to have safety of life and service, as well as standards and hygiene.

“We are trying, we've started in the online world, we want to make a strategy to become a tourism champion in the Balkans, we want to create new tourism packages, what important states like Croatia have done, we want to create a new industry to be competitive in the region and we want to prepare more. I call on the tour operators to manage the beach stations, have a season for the beginning to have the safety of life and service to have standards, maintain the purity and hygiene of our beaches”.