17.07.2021 – 21:10
Albanian-speaking tourism seems to hold the main weight this tourist season as well, as visitors from Kosovo are increasingly choosing Albania to vacation.
“I come from Podujeva. I go to other countries but I do not call if I do not come to Albania for vacation. I like people, my language. I stay 3 weeks or about 1 month “, – said a vacationer from Kosovo.
This is confirmed by the tour operators themselves, which show that bookings of tourists from Kosovo have increased significantly compared to a year ago.
According to Instat data, only in the first 5 months of this year, 525.3 thousand Kosovar citizens entered the country, exceeding 2019.
“We should be grateful that Kosovar and Macedonian tourists saved tourism for years. There are requests and bookings this year as well, although not like in 2019. “It is difficult to capture the levels of 2019 in the entirety of bookings”, – said Fatos Cerencishti, tour operator and vice president of the Albanian Tourist Union.
But, the visits from Poland are also promising as the Poles seem to have returned this year, as the operators find an increase of tourists from the region and not only.
“July and August are booked almost all. Contracts with Poles, Czechs, countries of the Serbian region have been returned and this year we have even more. They came individually not organized as we expected “, – said Fatos Cerenishti, tour operator.
“I am from Slovenia. It is my first time coming to Durrës. I see a mix of Italian, Balkan and a bit of Turkish culture. Then I will go to Saranda and some other cities to explore more. I am planning to stay for about 1 month “, – said a vacationer from Slovenia.
In fact, the first 5 months of the year have shown positive signals for tourism as over 1 million foreign nationals have entered the country, significantly more than a year ago, but still far from pre-crisis levels.
