The TEA application, the latest innovation in Albanian tourism for 2023, was honored with the title “Best Tourism Application” during the gala evening of the tourism awards ceremony, organized by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment together with the Albanian Tourism Union at the end of the year. This event celebrated all the actors in the most vital sector of the Albanian economy, who contributed to the tourism boom in Albania.

TEA – the first National Digital Calendar of Cultural Tourism, Tradition, Sports, and Artistic Events was honored with the motivation: “The latest technological innovation in Albanian Tourism, which encapsulated all the events of Albania in a single application to brand our country as a tourist destination through cultural heritage, nature, and artistic events.”

During this evening, 21 awards were distributed to businesses in hospitality, travel, and accommodation, while “Municipality of Saranda” was recognized as the most attractive year-round destination in Albania.

The Minister of Tourism and Environment, Mirela Kumbaro, during her speech, appreciated the cooperation and performance of the private sector for the year 2023, emphasizing that a historic year for Albanian tourism is coming to an end.

“We are closing together a historic year in terms of figures and with a positive external balance as an open economy for the first time in history, where the performance of the private sector has been the cherry on top of the well-cooked and well-coordinated works. All actors of the sector have their undeniable role in the synergy of well-created and coordinated works to produce the results we have achieved today,” stated Minister Kumbaro.

Further in her speech, the Minister of Tourism and Environment mentioned joint projects and challenges for 2024, which begins with an important event in international promotion such as the ‘Fitur Madrid’ tourism fair to be held in January.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, and also Deputy Prime Minister, Belinda Balluku, noted that “TIA has recorded 7 million visitors who entered Albania by air, or 120% more compared to 2019, which was the last normal year before the pandemic.”

“Tourism cannot be done by the government alone, nor only by hoteliers, tour operators, or guides. Tourism is made by all of us, and it is in our DNA,” further said Minister Balluku.

Until November, Albania was visited by 9.54 million foreign tourists. The main sprominence, was taken by visitors from Kosovo, but a novelty for this year has been the high inflow  from Italy (872 thousand visitors) and rapid growth from countries like Montenegro, Spain, France, and Germany.

On the other hand, Albania is being discovered with significant growth from countries like Turkey, China, and the Nordic countries, and at the same time, this year has seen the recovery of visitor flows from Ukraine.