Albania has experienced a good year for tourism in 2023, both for domestic and foreign visitors.

The latest data published by Eurostat on overnight stays in tourist accommodation for the whole of Europe show that the nights spent in hotels and similar structures in 2023 increased in Albania by 56.8% compared to 2022, while they were 84.7% higher than in 2019 before pandemic restrictions began.

Compared to the average of the European Union and other European countries, the growth is very high. The European Union saw an expansion of 6.1% of overnight stays in 2023 about 2022, while compared to 2019, by 1.4%.

The second country with the highest overnight stay growth after Albania is Malta with 20.5% and Cyprus with 20%, compared to 2022. Data for Montenegro are not available.

High growth was noted for both domestic and international tourists. In 2023, the overnight stays of international visitors to Albania increased by 81.7%, from a 0.3% drop which was the difference for the European Union. The second country with the best performance of international visitors’ overnight stays was Serbia, with 39.3%.

The overnight stays by domestic visitors in Albania increased by 90.3%, from the 2.8% average of the European Union, while the first place was taken by Iceland, with 109.3%.

According to Eurostat, in 2023, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation structures in the European Union reached 2.9 billion, an increase of 6.1% compared to 2022 and an increase of 1.4% compared to the pre-pandemic period in 2019.

In 2023, 24 out of 25 EU countries with available data exceeded 2022 levels in terms of overnight stays. The highest increases were recorded in Malta and Cyprus, where both countries saw a 20% increase in overnight stays compared to 2022, followed by Slovakia with a 16% increase.