In dieser Folge von Focus sind wir auf der ITB Berlin, wo Albanien seine Tourismusbranche vorstellt. Wegen der steigenden Besucherzahlen konzentriert sich das Land auf den Ausbau der touristischen Infrastruktur und versucht, für Nachhaltigkeit zu sorgen.
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00:00Ever hear of the Albanian Riviera? How about the Albanian Alps?
00:05Once a land cut off from the rest of the world, Albania has thrown its doors open to tourists by the millions and counting.
00:12Hello and welcome to ITV Berlin. It's the biggest travel show in the world.
00:17And the host country this year is Albania. It's a rising star in the tourism business.
00:22Some 10 million visitors in 2023, 15% more last year.
00:27How do they do it? Well, let's go in and find out.
00:30Tourism is a major sector powering Albania's economy. About a quarter of its GDP.
00:36More than 20% of the country's jobs.
00:39Among the reasons why, Albania's Prime Minister, Edi Rama, is here to spearhead the effort with the motto,
00:45Albania All Senses.
00:48I came here because for us it's like for the Bundesmannschaft getting the World Cup.
00:54It's a big reward of our success. And it's also very inspirational.
01:00Look at this. This tells it all, doesn't it? This island here.
01:04We have many like that.
01:06Where is this? Tell us about this island.
01:08This is in the very south. It's in front of Greece.
01:11And for them who never came to Albania, I want to say that in our 28,000 km country,
01:20you find the Mediterranean, you find Northern Europe, you find Switzerland, you find Germany in terms of nature.
01:28You have two seas, Rocky and also Sandy. You have nine rivers.
01:33You've got the Alps, you've got the Riviera.
01:35We have everything. We have everything.
01:37Roman ruins, Greek ruins.
01:38We have burning sun like in the Middle East. We have fresh air like in Northern Europe. We have everything.
01:46Three fourths of Albania are mountains. We have two seas, Adriatic and Ionian Sea.
01:53Mirella Kumbaro is Albania's tourism and environment minister.
01:58We have nine rivers. The last wide river in Europe, which is the Osa River, where a lot of people are coming for rafting.
02:04Because the water are turquoise, it's a very special color of this river, which is totally untouched.
02:10480 km of rivers going through the south of Albania.
02:15And there's Gjirokastra, the culture minister's hometown.
02:20Gjirokastra is mostly known as city in stone, because it's a very Middle Age period of architecture.
02:26And now it's one of the main destinations in the south of Albania, just half hour from Brice.
02:31Ottoman town with a castle.
02:33With a castle, the cities, the artisans, the food, excellent food.
02:38And also with a lot of agritourism and protected areas all around.
02:43But just half hour from that we have the biggest ancient city of Butrin, another UNESCO site.
02:50You have only very good and bio food everywhere where you are going.
02:54Agritourism, landscape, protected landscape.
02:58So accommodations on farms, right?
03:00Rafting all around this agritourism where you can have all senses of Albania.
03:07Hard to believe Albania was cut off from the rest of the world during the communist regime.
03:11Today the old bunkers built to defend the country from supposed invaders are historical relics,
03:17contrasting sharply with modern day Albania.
03:21It was North Korea of Europe. We were isolated from both west and east.
03:25We lived in a regime that built 300,000 bunkers.
03:31I've seen it.
03:32And told us that we had just to survive that evil world.
03:40And average tourists per year 5,000.
03:44Right.
03:45Average.
03:465,000?
03:47Yes. Now in 2024 we ended the year with 12 million for a country with 2.4 residents.
03:56So how does Albania avoid too much of a good thing?
03:59How to prevent overtourism as other places in Europe are struggling with?
04:05We are building resorts, we are building hotels, we are building high ends.
04:09But at the same time we are increasing the areas that are under protection.
04:13Natural parks.
04:14We have a natural park that I think is unique in the world because it crosses the country.
04:20The Vjosa river natural park, the last wild river in Europe where people come just for the beauty of the nature.
04:28What's your favorite place in Albania? If I had to go for a few days, where should I go?
04:32You should land to Tirana for sure and then you pick a destination and everywhere you go you'll find magic.
04:41A tourism rising star with big plans for the future.
04:44Once an isolated land, Albania is now connected with the rest of Europe and the world.
04:49And the world is coming to them.
04:51Chris Burns, Euronews, RITV, Berlin.