Tourist Arrivals Double y-o-y in First Half of 2017

TIRANA, July 21

Summer is the best time to travel and explore Albania and the data provided by the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) confirm that the number of international arrivals more than doubled during the first half of the year, compared to 2016.
According to INSTAT, the number of tourist arrivals during January-June 2017b reached 562,000 while during the same period of the previous year it was 230,000.
The stats also confirm that only in July, which marks the beginning of the peak season, tourist arrivals in Albania were 195,000 vacationers.
The growth in international tourist arrivals forecasts another good season, following the positive results of 2016.
According to the Bank of Albania (BoA), tourism revenues during 2016 were Euro 1.5 billion, which accounted for 15 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In the meantime, the figures for the first half of 2017 confirm that the above-mentioned record can be surpassed. Based on BoA’s data tourism revenues during Q1 increased by 6.4 percent thus, reaching Euro 301.5 million.
Tourism is one of the sectors most affected by the financial crisis, but this trend changed during the last three years and revenues from this sector increased at a fast pace.
The end of the Eurozone crisis and the increased interest in Albania in the global market positively affected the tourism sectors by turning it into the leading sector of the Albanian economy.

News Source: TCh