Italians, Albania's biggest "fans", recorded the highest growth in 2024

2025-01-23 07:30:00, Ekonomi CNA

Italians, Albania's biggest "fans", recorded the highest growth

On the streets of Tirana or other cities, or even in bars, you very often hear Italian spoken.

Italians are the group with the most consistent year-on-year growth in visitors to the country. In the first 11 months of 2024, almost 1.2 million Italian citizens entered the country, an increase of 33.2% year-on-year.

Of the 1.5 million more tourists who entered the country in the 11-month period, about 20% of them were Italians, making them the group with the largest increase in numbers. Italians were the second largest group of citizens entering the country in the 11-month period, with 10% of the total, after Kosovo.

Official data from the Institute of Statistics shows that this increase was also evident during the fall of 2024, and specifically in November, when this group recorded a 22.7 percent increase. In total, over 73 thousand tourists from the neighboring country visited us in November.

What is striking is a noticeable withdrawal of Poles during November 2024, which is a 20 percent decrease compared to the same period a year ago. Despite this, Poles have recorded a significant increase as the 11-month 2024 level was recorded at 67.7 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

Tour operators confirmed that the increase in Poles during 2024 was immediate and foreign agencies requested an increase in capacity in the structures where they had previously signed guarantee contracts. The expectation for this group, which comes mainly in an organized form in the Golem area, is also positive for 2025.

Kosovo, which holds the main share of tourism in the country, recorded a 1.9 percent contraction in November compared to the previous year.

The expectation was that this decline would be even stronger as a result of visa liberalization, but hotel structures confirmed that Kosovo Albanians were more present on weekends, indicating their return.

Meanwhile, regarding the first 11 months, Kosovo recorded an increase of only 0.9 percent in 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

This almost non-existent increase came as a result of several factors, where in addition to visa liberalization, the depreciation of the euro also played a role, as well as the perception that Albania had become more expensive, especially during the summer, something that, although temporary and in certain regions, had a negative effect on reservations.

During the fall, there is also an increase in visitors from countries such as France, Germany, Austria, but also from Europe beyond, a group of visitors who are mainly interested in cultural tourism and not in the sand and sea tourism that is at its peak during the summer season.

Official data shows that a total of 11.7 million foreigners visited Albania in 2024, a 15.2 percent increase compared to 2023.

The expectation is that 2025 will again be a positive year for tourism as a result of the first signals given by the guaranteed contracts that have already been signed, the volume of which is up to 25 percent higher for certain groups./ Monitor Magazine