The government aims to tax hotels based on reference values of room occupancy rate, calculated in two periods. In April-October, this reference will be 30% of occupancy rate of rooms and in May-September, 65%.

The decision specifying the details of this practice was approved on March 12, at the meeting of the Council of Ministers, and its disclosure seems to have prompted a unanimous reaction from tourism operators, associations, but also accommodation structures that have their reservations about this step, Monitor reported on Sunday.

Tourism associations and accommodation structures judge that this reference, especially for the off-peak period, is not realistic and risks that in addition to increasing costs or closing structures for months, it will affect a new labor force crisis.

The latter could be oriented towards commitments in other, more stabilized areas, causing businesses in the sector to be put under pressure to not meet staff needs before the season.

The concretization of the reference with a decision was not introduced unexpectedly. Government representatives, but especially the prime minister, have spoken time and again about a discrepancy between Albania's tourist "boom" and the real occupancy rate of rooms reported by the structures.

"We have imposed a 6% VAT on hotels. You have earned much more, we have not received what is due to us as a state in the budget that we need for these other things. With what will we complete all the necessary infrastructures?” said Rama in a meeting with a representative a week ago.

“How will we increase the professional training fund? In Albania, this year, there has not been a single empty room, with friends who have asked me for a room wherever it was. How do you explain that you’ve declared plenty of empty rooms? Next year you will have a reference and the state will take what it thinks is due, below that, there is no chance,” Rama has said.

Accommodation structures have their reservations regarding the government's recent initiative to establish a reference for taxation purposes.

Blerim Norja, General Manager of "Royal G" hotels, said that the 65% reference for the summer period is acceptable and most coastal hotels can achieve it, but in the off-season, establishing a 30% reference is not realistic.

"Setting a 65% reference in the season is within the limits of more or less all coastal hotels, but outside this season they do not reach 30%. All Durrës hotels from Ura e Dajlanit and up to Qerret never reach the 30% reference from October to April. So no one has 30% of rooms occupied at this level. It is impossible. Most hotels fluctuate between 10% to 20% in certain cases but the most logical average for all would be the 15% value. From such an initiative, the cost will be on large hotels. A structure that has 300 rooms has to declare 100 rooms occupied per day, something that is not realistic. This will bring a chain effect in their closure during the winter period," said Norja for Monitor.