TIRANA, Jan. 19, 2023 – The visible increase in foreign tourists in Albania in the past two years now has statistical backing: Albania has had the fastest post-pandemic recovery in tourism in the entire continent, according to official numbers by Albanian and European statistical bodies.
Experts say pent up demand for travel, the fact that Albania is relatively less expensive than other similar destinations and an increase in accessibility through new low-cost direct flights have resulted in a positive trifecta for the tourism sector.
Instat and Eurostat data analyzed by Monitor magazine, for the first 10 months of 2022 show a total of almost 3.6 million nights of stays in tourist accommodation in Albania, an increase of 22.8 percent compared to the same period of 2021.
The figure is in complete contrast with the European Union, which during the same period marked a decrease of 5.6 percent of stays in tourist accommodation units.
This was the highest increase in stays in Europe, and it appears the Western Balkans are leading the way as Serbia ranks second after Albania, 21.3 percent. The rest were far lower – Denmark, (12.3 percent), Iceland (5 percent), the Netherlands (4 percent), Norway (2.5 percent) and Turkey (1.2 percent).
Albania’s Instat data, available through November 2022, show foreign tourist arrivals hit a record high in 2022, which significantly surpassed the best tourist year so far, which was 2019, recording an increase of 17 percent in the number of visits with a record number of 7.1 million foreigners entering the country.
The entry of more foreigners has also influenced the significant increase in the number of stays in tourist accommodation.
According to Eurostat, the tourism industry in the EU seems to be recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of nights spent in tourist accommodation in 2022 was close to the pre-pandemic level (2.72 billion nights in 2022 compared to 2.88 billion in 2019; -5.6 percent).
This represents significant growth compared to the number of nights spent in 2020 and 2021 (1.42 billion in 2020, 1.83 billion in 2021; +91.1 percent and +48.3 percent in 2022, respectively).
During 2022, the monthly tourism figures increased continuously and finally approached the levels of the corresponding months in 2019.
Compared to the first six months before summer 2019 (January–June), in the same period of 2022, the nights spent in tourist accommodation decreased 11.0 percent. Meanwhile, the July-December period closely mirrored the levels of the previous nights of 2019 (-1.9 percent).
Meanwhile, other countries have not yet fully recovered from the pandemic’s impact on tourism. This was especially the case in Latvia (3.9 million in 2022 compared to 5.5 million in 2019; -29.6 percent) and Slovakia (12.3 million compared to 17.2 million; -28.3 percent).
