Albania embarked on promoting itself as a unique tourist destination at the leading International Tourism Trade Fair, organized by IFEMA Madrid, a global meeting point for tourism professionals from all over the world and where Albania is showcasing its rich diversity of its main and popular tourist destinations.
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-Mr. Prime Minister, Albania’s pavilion here at FITUR 24 trade fair in Madrid is really interesting. What are the interests and the opinions you drew from the important meetings you had here?
PM Edi Rama: Albania is certainly at a whole different level now and it is up to us to introduce and showcase the country fit to this level, promote the country by doing the best we can within the space based on the opportunities we can afford, because we are neither Italy nor Spain itself, yet Albania is a country that is now capturing everyone’s attention. Meanwhile, the Madrid trade fair heralds the world’s largest travel trade fair in Berlin, where we will take over as a host country next year in Berlin, something truly unimaginable some years ago and that’s why it is important for us to be here today and that’s why it is important that provide entire institutional support to this effort, because it is an indicator of the seriousness and the significance we attach to the tourist Albania 2030 challenge. Therefore, in this context, the meetings we are holding are important, as well as it is very encouraging that all those who seek to meet us today, until recently, were not interested in Albania at all.
-Mr. Prime Minister, more than 10 million tourists visited Albania in 2023, while, based on your expectations and your work, the number of visitors is expected to increase further in 2024. Your goal, the government’s goal, is to move towards elite tourism. When is this going to happen?
PM Edi Rama: First of all, the number of visitors will definitely increase this year, as already confirmed by the travel and tour operators participating in this trade fair and that have practically completed bookings also for 2025. On the other hand, we should push much strongly for more new investments, because we would otherwise find ourselves in an undesired and unpleasant situation between a growing demand and the supply that is not growing in proportion with the surging demand, because we wouldn’t succeed to do so, because there is a limit to balance the offer and supply ratio and it is great that the demand is higher, but not to the point where the demand is so high that it can discourage visitors at thinking that “the country doesn’t provide adequate supply and it is not worth visiting.” So, this is a process and I am confident we are on the right path, but most importantly the fact that Albania is now completely a different destination in the eyes of everyone helps us a lot.
-Mr. Prime Minister, you also met with King of Spain Felippe VI. You certainly had quite a friendly meeting with Prime Minister Sanches a day ago and Spain is playing and maintaining a very interesting diplomatic position regarding free movement of the Kosovo citizens. How will the cooperation continue in the future and are there concrete projects being implemented?
PM Edi Rama: Albania has the best ever relations with Spain in the sense that we haven’t had bad relations with Spain previously, but there have been good relations between parties that never met each other. High-level visits have also taken place. The Prime Minister himself has visited Albania. We have visited Spain and I have met the Premier twice here. In a nutshell, Albania and Spain currently have relations of the best level of communication and joint work. Spain also has an increased interest in terms of business and investments in Albania and it is not about tourism only, but Spanish entrepreneurs are also interested in other sectors, to explore Albania and the entire region.
-Thank you, Prime Minister!