Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
Honorable ministers and ambassadors, honorable participants.
Good evening and welcome to the "TEA" event, organized by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment and the National Tourism Agency.
Tonight we present the first National Calendar of Cultural, Sports and Traditional Tourism Events, which we symbolically illustrated with a performance installation by students from the Ballet and Artistic Lyceum art schools. We live in the era of artificial intelligence, in the period of digital Albania, in the stage of online Albania, where every service is offered and obtained with a click, at any time and from any place, with a computer or mobile phone, by each of us.
Albania, a country of beautiful tourist events, could not remain outside of digital developments. That is why today we are promoting and activating the first digital calendar of tourist events in Albania: the TEA (Tourism Events of Albania) application, available on the Apple Store and the Play Store.
Albania as a tourist destination is being branded through cultural heritage and multi-art events. Nature and Culture will be the tourism brand for us. They have always stood together in the Albanian context and supported each other. The creation of the TEA calendar and application gives us the opportunity to create a digital story around our brand, and will help tourists around the globe create a deeper emotional and unforgettable connection with Albania.
The creation of a national tourist calendar is a long-standing idea of the Prime Minister, Mr. Edi Rama, part of his vision, and of Minister Mirela Kumbaro, who entrusted this mission to the National Tourism Agency, which I have been leading for several months.
We have collected over 1.110 events in every corner of Albania, from traditional festivals in mountain or coastal villages, to music festivals or international festivals in cities or the country's capital, Tirana, creating a powerful database, and then structured event formats that suit tourist audiences.
With a directorial perspective, we distributed them geographically across all tourist destinations, from the coastline to the city squares and
tourist village centers, but also at cultural heritage sites, to "light up" every amphitheater, museum, castle, etc. with events.
Today, the map of Albania is filled with cultural and sports destinations that are organized not only during the summer months, but throughout the year.
TEA, divided into many categories, will bring us Albania in terms of tourism, culture, agrotourism and cuisine, local festivals, music festivals and concerts, folklore and modern music, multi-art events, theater, sports, including the most extreme ones... TEA will bring information for every preference and age group, in Albanian and English. Let's go into more detail, to understand what this application contains and how it can serve us all.
I want to emphasize the fact that throughout this entire process we have always kept in mind that the application should be as simple and easily accessible as possible, by everyone, by every user.
After downloading TEA in the Apple Store and PlayStore, this screen only appears the first time to guide users to select their language and preferences.
The user can select their favorite events, in order to receive all the necessary information to personalize their vacation or experience, and they can change them at any time in Settings.
Anyone interested in first selecting cities, and then finding the events taking place there, can choose the virtual itinerary via the "Map View" map.
If the user wants to navigate by selecting events, their specific categories, then they choose the virtual navigation through the list of events, the List View navigation.
The user can zoom in on the map and easily select the city they are interested in to see the tourist events taking place there. The city screen has an interactive map, where the location of the events can be seen. All events are listed.
On the screen, the user also has the opportunity to select events by date, category, audience age group, i.e. whether they are events for everyone, young people, or children, through filters.
The user can navigate the list of categories of all events that are included in this digital calendar.
You can choose between: Agrotourism & Culinary, Art Fest, Visual Arts, Local Fests, Music Festivals, Folklore, Concerts, Sports, Theater or Cultural Heritage.
Once the user has selected the event they prefer to follow, they can go to the event screen, where they will find:
Event photo gallery
Event naming
Event Location
Date and Time
Description
Through filters, he can select the city, dates, or age group of the event. With the corresponding button, he can share the event with his friends, who must download the application, and then mark it as a favorite.
And finally, users can receive information about the application through the e-mail address, with which they can contact the National Tourism Agency (calendarofevents@akt.gov.al) or even change preferences on the events they wish to attend, and the respective language.
Today we have a national calendar of tourism events, which gives us the opportunity, for the first time, to produce cultural tourism packages, adding artistic and sporting destinations to natural attractions, easily accessible through the TEA application.
TEA will be the guide, the guide, the inspiration of every Albanian, and of every foreign visitor and tourist who comes to Albania.
TEA will be the explorer of the tradition, culture, music and beauty of our country from today onwards!
Let's welcome it, have it on our mobile phones, and put it to use for everyone's travel and entertainment!
