Statistics now support the apparent rise in international tourists visiting Albania over the past two years: According to official data provided by Albanian and European statistical organizations, Albania's tourism industry has recovered the quickest of any country on the continent following the pandemic.
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| Drone view from the coast of Durres, July 2021 |
According to experts, a positive trifecta for the tourism industry has been created by pent-up demand for travel, the fact that Albania is relatively less expensive than other comparable destinations, and an increase in accessibility thanks to new low-cost direct flights.
The first ten months of 2022 saw an increase of 22.8 percent in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodations in Albania, according to Monitor magazine's analysis of Instat and Eurostat data.
The European Union, on the other hand, saw a decrease of 5.6% in the number of stays in tourist accommodation units during the same time period.
This was the highest increase in the number of stays in Europe, and it appears that the Western Balkans are taking the lead because Serbia ranks second, with 21.3%, behind Albania. Denmark (11.3%), Iceland (5%), the Netherlands (4%), Norway (2.5%), and Turkey (2.5%) were the other significantly lower percentages.
Albania's Instat data, which are available through November 2022, indicate that the number of foreign tourists visiting the country reached a record high in 2022. This significantly surpassed the best year so far for tourism, which was 2019, with a 17% increase in the number of visits and a record number of 7.1 million foreigners entering the country.
The significant rise in the number of stays in tourist lodging has also been influenced by the influx of more foreign nationals.
The tourism industry in the EU appears to be recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Eurostat. In 2022, the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodations was close to the level it was before the pandemic (2.72 billion nights compared to 2.88 billion nights in 2019; minus 5.6%).
This is a significant increase from the 1.42 billion and 1.83 billion nights spent in 2020 and 2021, respectively; +91.1% and 48.3% in 2022, respectively).
The monthly tourism figures continued to rise throughout 2022, eventually reaching levels comparable to those of the corresponding months in 2019.
The number of nights spent in tourist lodging decreased by 11.0 percent in 2022 when compared to the first six months before summer 2019 (January–June). Meanwhile, the levels of the preceding nights of 2019 (-1.9 percent) closely mirrored the July-December period.