The announcement of the Winners of the "Wanderlust in Albania" International Competition

The winners of the first edition of the International Photo and Video Reels Contest “Wanderlust in Albania”, who conveyed the magic of Tourist Albania, seen through the eyes of tourists and enthusiastic visitors, were crowned with prizes on the evening of December 12 in a festive atmosphere in Palace of Brigades.

At the gala evening, the General Director of the National Tourism Agency Zana Çela expressed her enthusiasm for the achievements of this competition in a time of only ten days and underlined that: “We thought to start a new journey, to promote touristic Albania through the most authentic storytellers, ourselves visitors. Today we will show you an unfiltered visually documented account of touristic Albania. The beauty of Albania is the protagonist of this fascinating story”, said Mrs. Çela.

In her welcoming speech, the Minister of Tourism and Environment, Mirela Kumbaro, praised the participants and winners of the “Wanderlust in Albania” Contest as a digital marketing agency and true ambassadors for the promotion of Tourism in Albania.

“I modestly tried to promote on my personal pages, by name and surname, all those who are passionate about photography, who brought Albania so beautifully through their lens as a tourist, but why not do it institutionally, because all these photographers and video maker, each with their work created a digital marketing agency, which promoted Albania on the coast, summer festivals, but also as an autumn destination with 547 thousand tourists during November, as well as among the winter destinations with the most beautiful markets of Christmas”, Minister Kumbaro emphasized.

During the gala evening, the 33 winners of photos and video clips for the 11 categories of the competition were announced by the international jury, as well as the two winners of the most popular photo and the most selected video clips voted by the public on the Facebook page of the National Agency of Tourism.

One of the prestigious awards of this competition was “Ambassador in the Promotion of Albanian Tourism”, an award which was given to four of the well-known Albanian photographers, who have conveyed and discovered through their lens the touristic magic of Albania from every corner of our country .

Ambassadors of Albanian Tourism were announced as Fation Plaku, Albert Cmeta, Ardian Fezollari and Alket Islami.

The awarding evening of the “Wanderlust in Albania” Competition was accompanied by a festive atmosphere worthy of the end of the year, where the sounds of traditional Albanian music and rhythms resounded under the prominent interpretation and brilliant voice of Vikena Kamenica.

In just ten days of applications, in the first edition of the “Wanderlust in Albania” International Competition, a total of 6284 photos and 746 Video Reels from Tourist Albania were collected; with a geographical map of the participation of 687 competitors from 42 countries of the world, from Australia, India, Japan, China to Europe.

This special event, where leaders of state institutions, representatives of the Diplomatic Body in Tirana, the media, tourism and hotel associations, as well as the winning competitors were present, comes as an idea to turn into an annual tradition and celebrate beauty and creativity dedicated to touristic Albania.