Albania

TIRANA, 5 March 2007 – Albania will launch a one-year tourism survey this month in its first systematic attempt to assess foreign visitors’ experience in the country and to inform marketing and investment in Albania’s tourism sector.

The initiative is a joint effort of the Ministry of Tourism and the UNDP Image of Albania Project in partnership with the University of Tirana and with expertise provided by the Central American Institute for Business Administration (INCAE) in Costa Rica.

While Albania has great potential as an eco and cultural tourism destination, it lacks data on the socio-economic profile of its current visitors, their degree of satisfaction, their expenditures, activities and expectations. The tourism survey aims to fill this information gap by providing a comprehensive analysis and generating data that will be useful in the country’s marketing campaigns and its investment in eco and cultural tourism.  

Around 2,000 questionnaires have been prepared for the data collection that will take place at Mother Theresa Airport, Albania’s only international gateway. A group of students from the Faculty of Social Sciences in Tirana, which has received training on surveying techniques and data processing, will be at the Airport every week for the rest of the year. Under the supervision of the INCAE Adjunct Professor Andrew Seidl, the working team will produce a mid-term report at the end of the 2007 tourism season and a final report with findings and policy recommendations will be completed in early 2008.

The project also aims to create capacities in the country for such monitoring mechanisms to exist beyond the lifetime of the survey. Hence, ongoing cooperation with the data collection unit at the Ministry of Tourism, Youth and Sports has been established.

“The proposed approach will invest in the human capital of the country such that an ongoing data collection and analysis effort might be sustained by Albanians with little or no assistance from outside consultants in the near term future,” Professor Seidl says.

In December 2005, the Albanian Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports with the assistance of UNDP launched the Strategy and Action Plan for the Development of the Albanian Tourism Sector Based on Cultural and Environmental Tourism. The Government of Albania has also made the promotion of the country as a tourism and investment destination one of its top priorities.

“It is crucial for the work of any administration to possess the right statistical data and analysis in order to be able to undertake the necessary policies for economic growth. This Tourism Survey is a first step in responding to the dire need Albania has in terms of data collection in the tourism sector and beyond – the way Albania is seen by foreign visitors,” says Dasara Dizdari, UNDP Image of Albania Project Coordinator.

To enhance the Government of Albania's capacity to support sustainable development based on a national tourism strategy that is oriented towards environmental and cultural tourism, UNDP has launched a three-year tourism development programme. The Image of Albania Project on the other hand is a complementary component of the major UNDP efforts in the field of tourism promotion and image building for the country.