Albania eager for international support to boost tourism

The Government of Albania invited international donors to support a Coastal Zone management and clean up program, in an effort to boost its tourism income especially in the southern Ionian shores bordering Greece.

The integrated program foreseen to amount up to USD 53.4 Million has been drafted and appraised by the World Bank which has already committed USD 23 Million.

The 8-year program will be implemented in two key phases. Italian Cooperation, German GTZ and other international institutions are already running tourism oriented projects, which donors claim to be overlapping sometimes, due to non-coordination.

Mr.Bashkim Fino, Albanian Tourism and Territorial Adjustment Minister told donors representatives in a conference held in Tirana that “this program should significantly increase the efficiency of natural, cultural and economic resources in the Albanian tourism”. One of the project’s main pillars is the environmental planning.

During the recent years after the fall of dictatorship regime, Albania faced a dramatic chaotic situation, mainly caused by the illegal constructions that followed the massive internal migration. Informal tourism is prevailing along the 470 km of coast while only 5% of the tourist accommodation facilities have been licensed by the Ministry of Tourism.

Ministry of Tourism told AENews that also a joint program is intended to start with Montenegro in order to coordinate the tourism perspective of the northwestern regional area surrounding the Buna river’ along the border between the two countries.

Albanian Government and donors’ community have defined the tourism sector a high priority and the best promising resource for sustainable development of the country.