Consequences of War in Ukraine at summer season, tourism strategy in Albania

Albania's Tourism and Environment Minister Mirela Godbarko says the war in Ukraine will have consequences on the summer tourist season, but adds she hopes tourists from other countries will ease the effects of these consequences.

In an interview by New York for the Voice of America, Godbarko says that the strategy of establishing hotels by strategic investors will begin to produce results over time, following the slowdowns by the quake and the Devido pandemic.

Godfather also talks about the Butrint Park management process.

Mrs. Godbarro, you are participating in a UN General Assembly Conference, which has a centred “sustainable tourism in the post-David situation and in the global crisis situation that has caused war”. Is there any appreciation for the impact of the war on tourism in Albania?

Goodla Godfather: No doubt. In fact, we were quickly changed by the forecasts of January month but also by the first part of February, where we prepared for a very high number of tourists this year. If we were to refer to this part of the tourism market coming from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, I can say that we were expecting about 130 thousand tourists from Ukraine alone. Much of it was even paid. Of course, what happened completely disbalanced this part of the market, including all three countries, and we can't predict anything anymore. The important thing is for this war to end as quickly as possible with less human cost. And tourism will recover. But on the other hand, we also have some reorients of tourist flows, which seem interesting about tourism coming from Italy, France, which have generally been flows toward Greece, there is a reorient towards Albania.