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Tourism in 2025, Kosovo holds us back, Italians are "bored", Germans and French are coming

2026-01-23 16:20:00, Ekonomi CNA

Tourism in 2025, Kosovo holds us back, Italians are "bored", Germans

Kosovo Albanians remained the main group of tourists in the country during 2025, recording 4.66 million arrivals.

Their share of the total of 12.46 million arrivals was 37.4 percent, once again showing the contribution that patriotic tourism has in this sector in our country.

Official data on groups that have visited Albania according to the Citizens' Movement published by INSTAT show that Italians remained the second most important group with 1.29 million entries in the past year.

This marks a 3.17 percent increase compared to 2024. What is noticeable is a significant slowdown in the growth of this group, as in 2024 compared to 2023 the growth was 31.5 percent.

Tour operators said during 2025 that a decline in Italians, especially during the summer, was evident and this was related to the fact that they no longer considered Albania a cheap place to vacation. The increase in the cost of some regions where this group concentrated for vacations, such as the southern part of Albania, caused many of them to cancel reservations or change destinations.

However, they remain an important group for year-round tourism, preferring weekend visits to Tirana or Durrës as well as the rest of the country and increasingly exploring the culinary and rural part of the country, given the fact that we still remain one of the countries with the lowest prices in restaurants.

Poles were also in decline last year. Tour operators emphasize that this decline does not come from organized tourism, which has been growing over the years, and contracts were also increasing in 2025. The decline comes from individual tourists who, under the extensive promotion that Albania has had in the last three years, decided to explore alone.

Last year, 288,000 Poles entered the country, accounting for only 2.8 percent of the total number of tourists. Tourists from Turkey and Spain also declined in 2025.

Growing groups

Germany and France are the two groups with the highest growth in tourist arrivals in our country and this is expected to remain the same this year. Official data shows that last year Germans had a 17.27 percent increase, marking a number of 452 thousand arrivals.

This is a group of tourists who come individually but especially organized on cultural tours but also during the summer. As for France, the increase was 25.39 percent compared to a year ago, marking 293 thousand. France is expected to continue the growth this year, and for the first time, tourist operators mediated with accommodation structures to bring them with guarantee contracts in an organized form during this summer.

Entries from the United States of America are also on the rise, with 241,000 entries recorded in 2025, an increase of about 8 percent compared to the previous year.

Albania is continuing this year with a wide promotion in international media and social networks, but this promotion is not of the magnitude that the country has had in the last three years. The exposure of tourism problems on social networks by visitors who have come to Albania seems to have caused that in addition to the most beautiful part of Albania, foreigners also have reservations about the problems they have encountered, especially regarding waste, infrastructure, abandoned animals, and prices that are not as economical as their expectations.

During 2026, tourism operators expect growth to continue in terms of visitors, but attention must turn to taking measures to ensure long-term sustainability. The slowdown in growth year after year is a signal that urgent measures need to be taken./ Monitor Magazine