Q&A: Albania on the Road from the World
Interview with Dr Ylly Pango, Albanian minister for tourism
TIRANA, Jun 21 (IPS) – -When psychiatrist turned political leader Ylli Pango took over as minister for tourism, besides holding other portfolios, Albania was always going to open welcoming gates to visitors from the world. And it has, with an almost fourfold jump in tourism over the last four years.
While he does so much for tourists, he is really doing so much more for Albania itself. He has made it his mission, more than just ministerial assignment, to clean up the country for visitors and for itself. And in the process clean up also the image of Albania. So that now Albania is coming rapidly to be seen not as a country Albanians leave, but one that others will want to come to.
IPS regional editor for Europe and Mediterranean Sanjay Suri sat down with Dr Pango to find out more about his plans.
IPS: Enough tourists coming to Albania, or not enough?
Ylli Pango: We are getting more and more. In 2003 we had just 250,000 tourists, this year we will have about a million, maybe more.
IPS: And where are they coming from?
Ylli Pango: About 50 percent are coming from neighbouring countries. From Kosovo, from Macedonia but also from other countries — from Poland, France, Germany, Italy, this year tourists are coming from Greece. And we have American agencies combining tourism to Croatia with visits to Albania. There is now a plan for cooperation between Macedonia, Croatia and Albania to exchange tourists.
IPS: Your neighbours Greece and Italy have traditionally got large numbers of tourists. Are you considering selling yourself more aggressively to get some of those tourists coming your way?
Ylli Pango: I take it as an advantage that we are neighbours of Italy and Greece, these are two ancient civilisations, and a lot of culture you see in Albania originally belongs to those two civilisations. Of course we cannot compare with Greece and Italy in terms of monuments of culture, but compared to Macedonia and Montenegro and Croatia we are at an advantage. Most people around the world know very little about the civilisation of Albania. When they come here they are surprised, not only because of the tourism of nature, of the sun and sand, but by our cultural monuments.
IPS: What are you doing to prepare for this increased number of tourists?
Ylli Pango: We are putting up more units of accommodation, to have more developed infrastructure, and secondly to do better in terms of promotion. Just for doing this in terms of promotion this year, we have made big progress because tourist signs are now being put up in all the southern parts of Albania, signs which show where monuments of culture and tourist spots are. Now we have started a website. In my visits this year to Lisbon, to tourism summits, people say you have a lot to show, but where are you, you have to show yourself up, so that is why we are now working faster.
IPS: In what way is the low number of visitors compared to Western Europe itself an opportunity.
Ylli Pango: The motto has been discover Albania. The country was isolated for 45 years, not well known by Western and other tourists. But there are two signs of the coin, one that it is undiscovered, the other that it is isolated, and we need therefore better infrastructure and capacities. On one side it is a benefit, on the other, it needs to advance.
IPS: What are you doing by way of marketing and publicity to sell Albania.
Ylli Pango: We have an agency to promote tourism, to prepare publicity spots, prepare pamphlets, to take part in tourism fairs around the world. Secondly, we will take up some big projects, one just launched by the Spanish government and the UNDP, focused on promotion of culture in Albania in the service of tourism, and improvement of the image of culture and tourist Albania. This is a one million euro project, and there are lots of others. One is supported by the European Union, for restoration of the cultural heritage of Albania. Many of our cities are old and historical, many have a castle, and a mediaeval downtown, and to revitalise all these centres is one of our main projects.
IPS: Is there sufficient access to all parts of Albania?
Ylli Pango: Most of the main access to the most interesting tourist spots is going to be finished next year. Access up to the north up to the border with Montenegro is done, the southern access is done. Other projects will be finished by 2008.
IPS: Is some of the infrastructure coming up illegal?
Ylli Pango: That is mainly in the centre of Albania, in the zone of Durres, the only tourist area which was destroyed, but there is still a long coastline that is intact, untouched, and it will be prepared by a World Bank project for starting licensing for tourist villages, resorts and so on. The big project will be finished within a few months, and right after this we will not only restore monuments in the south, and improve electricity and water supply, but even destroy in some places anything built up without permission. But in the southern parts there are only a few such villages. Some villages came up without permission, and these will be destroyed, in just the last few days we have destroyed some of them.
IPS: Is there a contradiction emerging between development and preservation of the environment?
Ylli Pango: In the southern part, I’d say that the most part of the coastline is mainly clear and pure in terms of nature. So the development damaged just this part close to Durres and to Tirana where people were supposed to build villages according to permission given by the government since 1993, but instead of villages they put up buildings of six, seven, eight floors, which is not proper for the coast.
IPS: Do you have plans for ecological preservation?
Ylli Pango: We have about 600 so-called monuments of nature. These are under the protection of the ministry of environment, and the tourism ministry works with it in terms of rural tourism, and preservation of those parks, to put them all in the service of tourism.
IPS: Adventure tourism is quite well developed, isn’t it.
Ylli Pango: Tourism of adventure and tourism of special interest is very, very developed in Albania, but only a few people know about it, because it has been started by adventurous individuals. There is no media to show what is developed, but it is very well developed. In places like canyons, mountain zones, rivers for canoeing.
IPS: There is an image around that Albania is not a very safe place, that there is a great deal of organised crime.
Ylli Pango: This was so at one time, about ten years ago. For about eight or nine years it is safe, security measures have been taken. This year too we have taken very serious measures. So in terms of safety there are no problems in Albania. In the past this happened during the transition from dictatorship to democracy, there are always problems at such times, but now the country is advancing fast, without any problems of safety and security. That is why we are working on this project of the image of Albania, not only in terms of the beauties of nature but in terms of safety and security. The image has much changed in relation to the past, and we have to show it to the world, because what remained in the mind of some people coming years ago was this bad image. But now most tourists who come here say what a surprise, we used to think it was a dangerous country, but it is so different.
IPS: Is Albania also cheaper to visit than some other countries around?
Ylli Pango: There are hotels which are cheap, restaurants which are cheap, but there are others which are very expensive. There are some hotels not of very good quality but in very interesting zones, and uncontrolled in terms of quality and prices, and they charge quite high prices. Under the new law on tourism, passed a month ago, now they are being placed under control for this tourist season. We have a department now for the service of tourism. It is mainly focused on controlling prices, quality, licensing, so now the situation will change. (END/2007)
