Ida Ismail
The 2025 summer season in Albania did not meet the expectations created by the enthusiasm of recent years. Tourism has now become an unheard bell. Although tourist arrivals in recent years reached record numbers, many of them did not return this season, while more and more Albanians have chosen to vacation abroad.
A year ago, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that the publication of photos and videos of empty beaches was an "organized attack" to harm tourism in Albania.
At the beginning of the year, Rama promised that by 2025, Albania would welcome 12 million tourists, describing this as an achievement in tourism and infrastructure development. But, contrary to optimistic statements, data show a significant slowdown in growth.
According to data from the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), in January-August 2025, nearly 9 million foreign tourists entered Albania, an increase of only 5.2% compared to 2024. While a year ago, the pace was 18.6%.
In September, Prime Minister Rama defended the figures, stating: “The summer tourist season has brought 500 more visitors so far this year than last year.” Later, the head of government said that Albania should target higher-spending tourists and not just continue to increase the number of tourists.
According to data from the Bank of Albania, foreign tourists who visited Albania last year spent around 5 billion euros, compared to previous years' spending of around 2 billion, 2,8 billion and 4 billion euros, for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively.
This means that a visitor spent an average of 427 euros, a figure that, according to the Bank of Albania, is lower than that of countries like Greece and Turkey.
The problems that drove away tourists
Tourism Minister Mirela Kumbaro said that fiscal incentives have been created for hotels, guesthouses and agrotourism, but admitted that the lack of qualified personnel remains a major problem.
"The economy has been growing faster than the professional workforce," said Kumbaro.
Specialists and tour operators emphasize that the recurring problems are directly affecting the quality of the tourist experience. One of them is Lyto Alliu, who deals with tour guides and reveals the difficulties he faces every tourist season:
“Many mountain trails still lack signage and directional signs, which often puts tourists in difficulty. Another notable issue is waste management, as some areas lack bins and cleaning is not carried out regularly. Infrastructure remains a challenge, especially the roads connecting national parks and tourist villages, which are still in a state of disrepair.”
Increase in prices became another serious obstacle. On the Albanian Riviera, hotel rooms reached up to double the cost of previous years, while seaside food became significantly more expensive.
Alliu emphasizes: “From my experience as a guide, I have noticed that the increase in prices has directly affected the interest of visitors. Some tourists who had planned to visit popular areas were withdrawn or chose more affordable destinations, while others decided to stay fewer days or use simpler accommodations outside the main tourist areas. There have also been complaints that the prices did not match the level of Services, such as beach infrastructure, cleaning and food quality.”
Also, problems encountered during the summer season were the lack of drinking water in some coastal areas, pollution of beaches, construction without criteria, but also the destruction of facilities at the peak of the season as happened in Theth, elements that directly damage the tourist image.
Albanians vacation abroad
While domestic tourism faces challenges, Albanians are increasingly choosing to vacation abroad. From January to July 2025 alone, 4.8 million outings were recorded, an increase of 9% compared to the previous year.
"This year I chose Greece, as the package I booked for 4 members of my family was very affordable. In our country, prices are constantly increasing, while the service leaves much to be desired," says Eda from Tirana.
FA travel agents report that this year there has been an increase in the number of Albanians who want to vacation abroad, mainly with Turkey as their destination.
"In previous years, reservations started in March and April, but this year they started in January. 'All-inclusive' packages with flights, transfers, hotels, three meals and unlimited drinks have become standard, which is attracting more and more holidaymakers from Albania."
Another worrying indicator for Albanian tourism was the significant decline in visitors from Kosovo.
Baki Hoti, president of the Kosovo Tourist Union, says: "Visa liberalization has directly influenced the reduction of the number of Kosovo citizens in Albania at the peak of the tourist season, causing them to go to European countries. The abuse of price increases has caused Kosovars not to choose the Riviera for vacations, but the most frequented destinations have been Durres, Shengjini and Velipoja. Another dissatisfaction has been the infrastructure, the kilometer-long queues at customs."
The new strategy
Faced with these challenges, the government has approved the National Strategy for Tourism Development 2025-2030, which aims to increase tourism revenues to 6.7 billion euros by 2030. The Tourism Strategy 2025-2030 includes incentive measures for more investments, tax breaks, improvement of the tourism offer, marketing and discipline of tourism construction. The strategy also emphasizes that more work needs to be done to increase the quality of service, where assistance for this phase will be the education system, which must adapt to the needs of the Services market.
The 2025 tourist season showed that increasing the number of visitors is not enough. High prices, infrastructure problems, poor resource management and lack of quality Services, risk Albania losing not only foreign tourists, but also the trust of its citizens, who are increasingly seeing vacationing abroad as the most convenient solution./acqj.al
