Around 12 million tourists and Euro 4.5 billion in revenue ranked 2024 as one of the best years for tourism. But the figures show that few were those who chose to stay at least one night in Albania.

From year to year, more foreign tourists are visiting Albania, but not all of them choose to stay in hotels, rented apartments, or even guesthouses, at least according to INSTAT data. Out of 11.7 million tourists in 2024, only 18% of them chose to sleep at least one night in Albanian accommodation structures.

Although overnight stays are at low levels, they have still increased compared to 2023. According to INSTAT, 2 million 185 thousand tourists who were accommodated last year mainly chose hotels, near the coastal areas but also in the north and south of the country. Beyond the summer season, this trend continued in the last months of the year. With tourists who came mainly from Italy, Kosovo, Germany and England. This increase has also been translated into the net occupancy rate of beds and rooms.

A good part of tourists choose Albania as a transit country to move from one country to another without spending a single night in Albanian accommodation structures, but on the other hand, informality remains a problem. This causes entities not to report real figures.

According to figures calculated by the sector association in our country, 50% of Albania's accommodation capacity is apartments and villas outside the tax system, which harms both the state budget and competition between entities.