TIRANA, Albania, Jun 25 - It was not so long ago that Albania, a tiny nation of 3.5 million in the western Balkans remained off route for hundreds of thousands of tourists who rushed to the Adriatic coast for their summer vacations.
But things have changed in this part of the world, and thousands of visitors now undertake what seems to be a very logical journey: they continue south from the beautiful Croatian and Montenegrin coasts to explore Albania.
Albania, they discover, is a land of unexpected beauty, breathtaking mountains and a stunning 362 km coast. It is a country also with a discreet aroma of a recent and secretive past.
Albania emerged from decades of self-isolation only 17 years ago.
"It is the taste of the unknown they usually have in mind when planning the visit," tourist guide Agron Guri told IPS, pointing at a group of 10 Japanese tourists he took to the main Skenderbeu Square of Tirana.
"The Japanese usually go to the Croatian and Montenegrin coast first and end up their 10-day visit to the region with Albania," he added.
This is how some 10 percent of 900,000 visitors came into the country last year, according to the United Nations Development Programme UNDP).
But revenue from tourism still makes for only 3.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
There is no separate ministry for what some see as Albania's fastest developing industry. Tourism, culture, youth and sports are under the umbrella of a single ministry.
The UNDP is currently helping Albania with its Eco and Cultural Tourism Support Programme to promote the potential of Albania abroad.
"Some 55 percent of exactly 914,046 visitors last year were ethnic Albanians from the neighbourhood -- Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro -- who visited their families and friends or went to the coast," UNDP programme manager Lauren Bohatka told IPS.
About two million ethnic Albanians live in Kosovo, and hundreds of thousands in neighbouring Macedonia and Montenegro.
There is a large Albanian population outside the region as well. Official estimates put the number in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Greece and Italy at another two million.
In recent years Albanians migrated out in all directions, chasing every opportunity. Some fled illegally across the snowy mountain passes to Kosovo or Macedonia. Others took boats across the Adriatic to Italy. No one keeps statistics how many died trying to flee.
People fled what is now simply described as a "troubled past".
That includes the era of former autocratic communist ruler Enver Hoxha, who died in 1985. Decades of his rule since World War II saw the country swing from friendship with former Yugoslavia in the 1940s to closer relations with the former Soviet Union until the late 1960s. Then followed a sharp turn towards China, earlier dismissed as an adequate communist friend.
The 1990s and the introduction of the multi-party system saw not only major political changes, but the collapse of the state-controlled economy. One consequence was the violent end of privately introduced pyramid saving schemes in 1997.
In 1999, more than 500,000 ethnic Albanians were pushed into the country from Kosovo,
Source: IPSNews
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