Albanian tourism faces the challenge of standards - Topuzi: The sector should be measured by value, not by flow
Albania needs to shift its focus from tourism based solely on the number of visitors, towards a model that guarantees more quality, standards and real income for the economy. This is the position of the Head of the Association of Tour Operators, Zak Topuzi, who emphasizes that the country is late in this direction, while the region has advanced at a faster pace.
"We are late for this, while the region has moved at an extremely fast pace. But it is not about isolated areas. That is, the new theory has a misunderstanding between mixed-use investments, which both politics, or even the opposition, but also people in general, consider as an occupation by the people who pay, where ordinary residents ultimately cannot enter those territories. This is a wrong concept. So, now the concept of mixed-use tourism is like this. Special poles are created that can function 12 months of the year and economize and rationalize income well for the business, bring good employment, functioning of the areas and engagement of the local community, turning this into a factory that works during 12 months of the year."
Representatives of the sector have long demanded that the main measure of tourism success should not be just the number of tourists, but the impact they have on the economy. According to Topuz, this year there is a stabilization of the figures, with a more moderate growth, in line with the European trend of tourism development.
"In fact, this year there is a stabilization and moderation of the figures. We have an increase of almost 5–6%, which is in line with the European trend of how tourism is developing. We have been discussing for years that the number is not as important as the quality and standard, or how much money they leave in the economy. This has been more or less the demand in principle of the industry group for the government."
Moving from quantity to quality is a necessity to make the sector more competitive in the region. For Albania, this means more well-targeted investments, more professional services, and a tourism model that is not measured only by border entries, but by the value it generates for the economy and local communities.
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