Muhamed Kurmemi, general manager of Harmonia Hotels Group (Albania), as one of the participants in the “Summer 2023” conference panel, said that Albania has emerged as a new destination in the region after some 50 years of “closure.“
“Albania is like a new destination in the region, after some 50 years of Enver Hoxha’s imprisonment and after a few years when tourism slowly began to be thought about. I think that Albania started to engage in tourism in the last 10 years, and maybe in the last 5 or 6 years to professionally deal with organized tourism. This means charter flights and travel agencies from many European countries,” he said. The commitment to tourism has proven to be the right one as that segment of the industry continues to grow. ” I think that every year it grows and grows, as do the capacities of hotels, but also new hotels.
Likewise, the destinations and guests who spend the summer in Albania,” he added. Kurmeni points out that the largest number of guests in Albania come from Poland, who also spend the largest number of overnight stays. As for Serbian tourists, they recognized his country as an attractive destination during the pandemic. “Corona brought the Serbian market to Albanuj for the first time. I say that because I think we were the only country where you could travel and vacation without a vaccine and without any problems, and we know what it was like at the time of the corona. I think that the Serbian market had nowhere to go then, so Albania represented a real “open door.“ People came to Albania by themselves, without a travel agency and without a tourist offer, and, most importantly, they came back very satisfied and saw that it was not the Albania they were prejudiced about,” Kurmeni emphasized.
The entire conference can be viewed HERE.