The tourist season in Albania ended with 9.7 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of 2024. Global inbound tourist arrivals are slightly lower than the record numbers reached last year and lower than the expectations of the Albanian authorities, who were aiming to reach 14 million tourists.
However, the World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) notes that Albania has increased its tourism revenues by 128% compared to 2019, i.e. the period before the pandemic. This is the highest figure at international level.
Albania received the highest number of visitors from neighboring Kosovo (almost 3.4 million), Italy (around 900,000) and North Macedonia (over 600,000). This year, the number of visitors from India (13,000), China (almost 16,000), France (over 157,000) and the Netherlands (almost 92,000) also increased.
Tourism is growing in Albania, along with the “ambitions to consolidate an offer with the highest levels of quality, standards and hospitality,” said the Minister of Tourism and Environment, Mirela Kumbaro. In his opinion, Albania, surrounded by the “tourism giants” cannot compete with them, but it can complete the map of a tourism attentive to the discovery of places rich in historical and cultural value. This is the meaning of the slogan with which the Balkan country presents itself to foreign visitors: “Albania all senses”.
The increase in visitors to protected areas and national parks (4.5 million people), cultural sites (one million people) and 270 agritourism businesses confirms the consolidation of the tourist offer outside of traditional seaside destinations and throughout the year. Given the strong demand of accommodation facilities to enter the agritourism market, the Ministry intends to strengthen this sector with the creation of a thousand agritourist structures by 2030.
Minister Kumbaro presented the National Tourism Strategy 2024-2030, according to a sustainable development model. regulatory policy in tourism, destination management, tourism product development, destination marketing and capacity development based on social, environmental and economic aspects.
It is also planned to create, improve and consolidate tourism products by dividing Albania into five tourism regions: the Adriatic coast, the northern hinterland, the region of Tirana, the Ionian coast and the southern hinterland.
