Albania's tourism agency has revealed a large growth in visitors. Between January and July, 1.5million visitors entered Albania, a 36% increase on the same period last year.

The agency revealed that 92% of Albania's tourism came from Europe, with Kosovo proving to be Albania's largest market, with 47% of visitors, with Macedonia and Montenegro closely behind. Because these countries have large ethnic Albanian populations, tourism from these countries can be referred to as patriotic tourism.

Though Albania's tourism has grown alot in the last few years, the country is still well behind its regional competitors when it comes to infrastructure and promotion according to lobby groups and industry bodies. 

The World Economic Forum have recently said that Albania is 90th in a table of 133 countries competitiveness in the global tourism and travel industry. None the less the growth is great news for Albania's property market. Potential property investors have been drawn by promises of a growing tourism market and it is nice to see these promises being realised. 

Albania is receiving a lot of help from the European Union to make it more competitive so that it can become a full and profitable member of the community, though controversy over the openness of the recent election may have set this back, although there has been nothing official from EU observers.

 information courtesy of www.property-abroad.com