The number of foreigners arriving in Albania jumped by 27% y/y to 630,334 in June, after rising by 1.7% a year earlier, data from the statistics institute INSTAT indicated on July 23.
The Albanian authorities have worked hard to attract more foreign tourists. Travel and tourism in Albania, a country with Adriatic and Ionian Sea coastlines, accounts for 8.4% of the country’s GDP.
In June, the number of domestic tourists went up 8.1% y/y to 450,130, bringing the total number of tourists to 1,080,464 (+18.4%).
In the first six foreign tourists arrivals increased by 11.3% y/y to 2,136,952.
The number of local tourists was higher by 8.6% at 2,464,554. The total number of tourist arrivals was 4,601,506 (+9.8%) in the first half of 2019.
Most foreign tourists who arrived in June came from Kosovo, North Macedonia, Greece, Italy and Montenegro.
The number of foreigners arriving in Albania jumped by 15.8% y/y to 5.93mn in 2018, after rising by 8.1% a year earlier.