Tourism paradox

30/07/2011 16:10

World Tourism Organization announced that Albania has been visited by 2.2
million tourists during 2010 or 25.6 more than one year before.

These data show that our economy benefited 1.6 billion USD from these tourists. According to World Tourism Organization, a tourist who enters Albania spends averagely 730 USD during his visit. Data show that the average revenues per tourist have almost been halved, going to 730 USD in 2010 from 1300 that they were in 2008.

But the tourism results in Albania do not match with the revenues, paradoxically. This paradox can also be noted in the government’s official data. The Ministry of Tourism declared that compared to 2005, the number of tourists visiting Albania has increased 10 times, while the revenues only 2.1 times. This panorama becomes even more paradoxical when one takes in account the price increase.

In the last 5 years, inflation grew with 20%, which means that the same number of tourists should have spent 20% more than 5 years ago. The tourist number results only give a false glamour to the official data, since the decrease in revenues shows that Albania is attracting fewer tourists than before.

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