Tourism/ The citizens of Kosovo are leaving, the Italians are not abandoning us

2024-07-15 08:22:00, Aktualitet CNA

Tourism/ The citizens of Kosovo are leaving, the Italians are not abandoning us

Illustrative photo, taken from Google

The weight of tourists from Kosovo in the total number of entries registered in the country has decreased in January-May 2024 compared to the same period a year ago.

Citizens from Kosovo accounted for 37% of the total arrivals for the period, from 40% in the same period a year ago.

The statistics published by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment show that in 5 months, 1.24 million citizens of Kosovo entered with a 22.6 percent increase compared to the same period a year ago.

Despite the higher entrances, tour operators and hotel structures have reported a lower number of tourists from Kosovo on the coast, something that is being observed during June and July, with the exception of the part of Shengjin and Velipoja where these tourists are present.

Visa liberalization seems to have paved more alternatives for Kosovo, where EU countries and mainly Greece seem to be preferred destinations. A part of the entries of citizens from Kosovo only pass through the territory of Albania to go to Montenegro, for example, or to fly from Rinas.

While Kosovo has lost weight, those who seem not to abandon us are the Italians. The latter were with a 40.5 percent increase in January-May 2024 compared to the same period a year ago. Their weight in the total has increased to 11.2 percent compared to 9.2 percent that was years ago.

The third group with the highest weight is Montenegro, where 8.4 percent of entries belong to this country, but compared to 2023, this group has decreased. The same thing happened with North Macedonia, where the weight decreased to 8.3 percent of the total from 9.5 percent that was a year ago. Then comes Greece with 7.6 percent of total entries and England and Germany with 2.8 percent each.

The largest increase in percentage compared to itself is observed among citizens from Romania with 64 percent more in January-May 2024 compared to the same period of 2023, followed by China with 59 percent and the French with 51 percent.

Albania continues to be a "trendy" destination for foreigners, where the number of arrivals continues to register double-digit growth month after month. Promoted as a cheap destination, Albania is attracting tourists in the budget and in numbers this year it is predicted that the arrivals of foreigners will be higher than last year which marked 10.5 million (the government predicts 14 million).

In an announcement, the Ministry announced that 4.5 million foreign tourists entered Albania in the first half of 2024 or 34% more than the same period in 2023. The month of June brought 1.2 million inflows to our country or 19.1 % more than June last year. /Monitor