Rama wants Albania to be tourism 'champion'

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Tuesday that he hopes to turn the country into a "champion for tourism", as he fights to win reelection this weekend.

Sunday's parliamentary election are a key condition to start full negotiations to join the European Union. The coronavirus negative impact on tourism and its economy are a key issue.

Rama said Albania would soon turn into the region's tourism champion. To help that he mentioned a new low-cost airport, the start of another one along its 200-mile seaside or turning its main port of Durres into a tourist attraction.

"We are on the right path to transform this country in western Balkan champion for tourism and to bring this country in the 'Champions European', the Champions League of tourism," said Rama in an interview to the Associated Press.

Before the pandemic in 2019 Albania attracted more than 6 million tourists bringing about 9% of GDP, which the government hoped to raise it to 10% the next year unless affected from the virus pandemic. Preliminary figures on 2020 from the Tourism Ministry show at least a 40% fall.

Albania has imposed an overnight curfew, mandatory use of masks and social distancing which have mostly affected hotels, restaurants and cafes.

Albania saw a 3.31% drop in GDP in 2020 due to the pandemic and a fatal magnitude 6.4 earthquake in November 2019 that caused significant damage.

The next steps for the country are “leaving behind the pandemic and the earthquake consequences and bringing Albania up,” the prime minister said.

The government has launched a mass vaccination campaign, including the staff of the tourist businesses, ahead of the start of summer season.

Rama thanked Brussels for giving 145,000 shots to Albania, comments that followed previous complaints about the speed of delivery.

Becoming a European Union member country one day remains Albania's main goal, according to Rama.

Last year Brussels gave the green light to Albania and North Macedonia for the launch of full membership negotiations, but no date has been set yet for the first inter-governmental meeting