Kosovo full potential for tourism, lacks infrastructure

Anni why Kosovo has tremendous potential for developing mountain tourism, Ruzhdi Kurtisha, chairman of the Kosovo Tourism Association and owner of a tourist agency in the country, said that in this direction more needs to be worked on, especially for infrastructure and tourist offers. He cited several problems that convey tourism in Kosovo.

Kosovo lacks tourist bids, hotels are extremely expensive. So compared to countries in the region, it's more expensive to accommodate and at the same time we have a very big problem, especially in the mountainous areas of poor infrastructure. Without electricity, without legal infrastructure and specific tourist areas, it is a problem to attract tourists, adds here the lack of tourist supply that we do not yet have”, he said.

Kurtisaj said tourists wishing to visit Kosovo were suggested going to areas in Peja, Rugova's Grika, Boga, then to the Sharr Mountains, including Brodin, Prevala and others. He said that in Prizren all tourists are happily divided. Kurtisha also added that tourists are preferred to visit the history sites as well.

Kosovo has been witness publicly that it has religious tolerance, so we have religious heritage and we have cultural heritage in the beautiful city of Prizren, where all local and foreign tourists are extremely satisfied. Also, as a tourist agency, we prefer to visit the holy site of the Jasharaites in Prekaz, also Gllojjan with a history and other places we have with different forts, whether Artana, Prizren Fortress, which has exceptionally beautiful view”, Kurtisha said.

The chairman of the Kosovo Tourism Union, Bucky Hoti, considers that Kosovo in terms of the tourism part offers enormously. He said last year there has been an increase in the number of visitors to Kosovo for 25%, adding that this year he expects this percentage to increase.

The “principally in Kosovo, especially in last year's statistics, we have had an enormous increase in tourists who have visited Pristina, always given the increase in activities and festivals that the Pristina Community has organised, so all of these activities are an element that attracts visitors. Then we also have Prizren's share, where there is great interest in cultural tourism an interest in visiting various cultural heritage monuments”, he said.

Hoti said visitors go more to Rugova, Radavac to the” Sleeping Beauty” cave, Drini Falls and many other attractive countries. And in winter season, he mentioned ski centers that have many visitors.

According to a poll by the Kosovo Statistics Agency, attended by 146 hotels, for the period of March 2023, the number of local and foreign visitors to Kosovo was about 52 over the mine, and of them 30.76% were local and 69.24% foreign. The largest number of visitors was Pristina with 18 thousand 567 visitors, while the largest number of articles in the net were in Pec region with 65 thousand 253 nights of attitude.

According to the AKS, in terms of foreign visitors, the largest number was from Albania, Germany, Switzerland, and so on.