About

Summary

As part of the World Bank’s partnership with the Government of Albania, a Project for Integrated Urban and Tourism Development (PIUTD) was approved in November 2016 as a catalyst for regional development in the South of Albania.  This tourism statistics project was one of several development studies that were funded under the PIUTD.

The overall aim was to improve the system of tourism statistics in Albania at the national, regional and local levels, and produce three clear deliverables as follows:

• A comprehensive understanding of the current system of tourism statistics that enabled a full assessment with clear recommendations for improvements, including a realistic action plan.
• The development of a Terms of Reference for a firm to assist with the implementation of the recommendations made.
• The development of technical specifications, plan and budget to develop an electronic system for the collection, storage and dissemination of tourism statistics in Albania.

Our Approach

The key element of the study was a comprehensive review of the existing system of tourism statistics in Albania, to understand what was being collected, and how this could be improved.  Consultations with a wide range of organisations in the public and private sector across Albania were undertaken, which allowed us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current system and to make clear recommendations on how improvements could be made - these included model questionnaires where appropriate.  We also undertook a review of the research capability of the Tourism Research Unit in the Ministry of Tourism and Environment and made recommendations for its restructure.

Based on the comprehensive assessment of the system of tourism statistics an assessment of developing a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) was made, including costs and a plan of action.  Crucially, this included an assessment of the technical capabilities of the national accounts department within INSTAT, who would be principally responsible for its compilation.

The final stage was to compile an action plan and terms of reference to deliver the recommendations, as well as the design and scope of a tourism statistics database system to collect, store, retrieve and disseminate this information.

Outcome

The study was approved by the Albanian Development Find and World Bank, and the Terms of Reference for the implementation of the work were published in July 2023 with the aim of contracting a firm to undertake the initial stages of the project in early 2024.