Albania does not only have coastal tourism, as a new approach to welcoming foreign and local visitors is now the countryside, the farms and their products.
Farmer Petrit Fiska from Roshnik, in Berat in central Albania, says that the agricultural work has brought foreign tourists to the village.
Journalist Rudina Muça: How much land do you have?
Farmer Petrit Fiska: I have 15 hectares of vineyards, but now I take all the grapes from the village and process them.
Muça: Do tourists come here in the summer as well?
Fiska: If I didn’t have grapes, wine and brandy, you wouldn’t see a foreign tourist here. They are attracted to the way we produce while still maintaining tradition.
In this village we found wine tourism, but olive oil tourism can also be seen in Berat, because agriculture is also a contributor to tourism, just like in the mountainous areas where history and folklore are preserved.
Tourist operator Eva Rama says that this new approach to tourism develops the village and tourism a lot, since they put into play many other actors. “Today, for example, we offer the Wine Routes for foreign tourists, where they get to know the indigenous Albanian grapes and the way wine is produced in Albania,” says Rama.
“But for the foreign tourist to stay as long as possible in the village, we must not only offer them m food, but we must introduce them to the tradition of production as well as local folklore. As I am doing now, pressing the grapes with my feet while listening to folk music, this is how our ancestors did it on the day of the grape harvest.”
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