“Little Italy”: Albania “Steals” Hundreds of Thousands of Tourists from “the Land of Spaghetti”
In a surprise visit to Albania, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joined hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers from her own country who have chosen this Balkan nation for their holidays, driven by rising prices and the severe heatwave that recently struck “the land of spaghetti.”
According to the British newspaper the Financial Times, Albania is one of Europe’s poorest countries, one that has spent decades struggling to shed its poor reputation tied to corruption and organised crime, which has driven hundreds of thousands of its citizens to emigrate.
But this country of striking natural beauty is now enjoying something of an economic recovery, driven by a tourism boom.
After its Mediterranean beaches drew tourists with their competitive prices, the number of airline passengers to Albania doubled in June compared with the same period last year, according to the airport operators’ association ACI Europe.
The Airports Council International said “the opening of low-cost routes to Albanian airports has contributed to this jump.”
Hotel stays also rose overnight, with the latest Eurostat figures showing foreign tourists spent 261,000 nights in Albania in the first quarter of this year, a rise of 152 percent over the same period in 2019.
While foreign tourists have continued flocking to Italy – where international arrivals rose 43 percent in the first four months compared with the same period in 2022 – domestic travel fell 20-30 percent compared with last year in certain regions, according to the Italian tourism trade body Federturismo.
The body’s president, Marina Lalli, said the drop in domestic tourists “should serve as a warning bell confirming that hotels won’t be fully booked this year.”
Italy’s finance ministry said it was “counting on tourists to boost the country’s GDP in the third quarter, after disappointing second-quarter figures, when output shrank by 0.3 percent from the previous three months.”
In addition to high prices, heatwaves, wildfires in the south, and storms in the north led to the last-minute cancellation of many tourist trips this summer.
In Sicily, a wildfire outbreak and a volcanic eruption forced the closure of Catania airport, leading to thousands of cancellations and mutual recriminations over the slow response from authorities.
“More Expensive Than Norway”
In one widely shared video, Indian travel and lifestyle influencer Akansha Mongu urged tourists to “avoid travelling to Italy this summer,” saying “the heat and the crowds were unbearable, while prices are higher than in Norway.”
Italian local media have also rated Albania a “perfect destination,” praising its ivory sandy beaches and describing it as “Europe’s Caribbean.”
Meloni was joined on her trip by her partner and their six-year-old daughter, and met her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, and his family on Monday and Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the matter cited by the Financial Times.
An Italian official said Meloni “attended a dinner hosted by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Tuesday.” However, several local media outlets and another Italian official said she returned to Italy on Tuesday to celebrate Ferragosto, a national Catholic holiday.
Spokespeople for the prime minister did not respond to requests for comment from the British newspaper.
Rama had previously shown off photos on social media of ferries packed with Italian tourists, wryly describing it as a new “invasion” of his country, a reference to its occupation by fascist leader Benito Mussolini in 1939.
He said the number of Italian tourists had reached nearly “half a million” this year, while Italian media estimated the figure at more than 300,000, a 57 percent increase over the whole of 2022.
With prices rising in Italy, international tourists have been drawn in by Albania’s lower costs across the board, from hotel stays to restaurants and entertainment venues.
Germany’s Federal Statistical Office recently found that restaurant and hotel prices in Albania are 56 percent lower than in Germany, making it the cheapest holiday destination in Europe.
Among the visitors was an Italian man named Nicolas Ferrero, a prosthetics maker from the coastal city of Rimini in northern Italy.
The 38-year-old described the ferry crossing as “chaos,” with many British, Italian, and Albanian passengers on board.
When he arrived at the Saranda resort near the Greek border, the beach was packed with Italians. “That area has basically become Little Italy,” he said.
Ferrero said he had long wanted to visit the country after growing up in a community with many Albanian immigrants, and since he had “already seen most of Italy,” he felt this new culture and cuisine was worth exploring.
Italy’s Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, meanwhile criticised Albania’s efforts to compete with Italy in tourism.
He said: “It’s clear that other countries on the Adriatic coast want to be like Puglia (in Italy), but what you can find here can’t be found anywhere else.”