Rama's 'bluff'/ How foreign tourists are embracing the protests in Albania

Prime Minister Edi Rama claimed that the wave of protests is harming tourism and is bringing the first cancellations, but the experiences of tourists who have joined the protesters and travel agencies themselves prove the opposite.

A video posted on Instagram on Sunday evening, where an American tourist filmed himself smiling among protesters on the streets of Tirana, was viewed more than 280,000 times within 12 hours.

The young man in the video is Gabriel Bolling, a 22-year-old from Florida, who came to Albania on a planned trip to discover the country, but found himself swept up in the enthusiasm of young Albanians marching demanding the resignation of the prime minister and the cancellation of a massive tourism project in the protected Narta lagoon.

“Participating in this protest was a deeply transformative experience,”  Bolling told BIRN.

“It embodies exactly what a civic movement should be: peaceful, resonant, and unwavering. The energy was palpable and gave me a new sense of hope, the belief that we are living a turning point, when people are finally choosing to look beyond financial self-interest and fight for what is morally right,”  he added.

Although he had planned his trip earlier, Bolling says the protest would be "a strong reason to come to Albania."

Brett Pavel, 74, from Colorado, United States, has also joined the protests along with his wife, while enjoying the Vlora coast on their second visit to Albania.

Pavel posted on his Facebook profile and on tourist sites videos from the protest organized in Durrës on Sunday, holding a banner with the inscription "Save Narta".

“I participated in the protest in Durres because I fully support the right of Albanian citizens to defend their country from the predatory interests of foreign billionaires, as well as to protect a wild natural treasure,”  Pavel said in an email response to BIRN.

He says he is planning to participate in other protests being organized in Vlora or Durres during his stay in these cities.

In one of his statements, Prime Minister Edi Rama claimed that the protests of thousands of people were negatively affecting tourism and, according to him, the first cancellations of reservations for the summer season had begun.

But Rama's statements are not supported by dozens of enthusiastic videos from foreigners at the protests as well as from the country's tour operators.

Contrary to the prime minister's claims, leaders of tour operator associations told BIRN that the protests have not had any impact on the number of reservations so far, while the joining of foreign tourists in the protest has brought positive energy.

"There are no cancellations, there is no impact, but we can't say that the protest is increasing tourism,"  says Kliton Gërxhani, president of the Albanian Association of Tour Operators & Travel Agencies.

"These videos on social media are beautiful, there seems to be some sympathy, but I don't believe a tourist is influenced in planning their vacation to come here by this,"  he added.

Aneo Hila, who has been working in the tourism sector for 17 years as manager of Albanian Eagle Tours, also emphasizes that the protests have not brought any change to the sector at the moment.

“But there is a positive energy in the union of foreign tourists in protest,”  he told BIRN, adding that the impact of this energy will be analyzed at the end of the summer season if it has managed to influence the increase in interest in visiting Albania.

For Hila, the situation could potentially produce two effects; an increase in tourism due to the admiration with which foreign tourists are following the protest, but also a kind of deterrence due to a potential security crisis.

But Hila herself believes that the echo of the protests is positive and could increase interest in visiting Albania.

Ornela Liperi, editor-in-chief of the economic magazine "Monitor", also believes that the protests are marking an increase in Albania's image in the world and will only benefit tourism in the long term due to their environmentalist cause.

"So, even if there will be any negative effect in the short term, which I don't believe, since there is no war in Albania anyway, in the long term, the benefit is only positive in terms of improving the country's image,"  said Liperi.

Liperi estimates that Rama's statements about 'scare away tourists' are aimed at devaluing the role of the protests that have already received international attention.

Referring to the massive spread of the protest on foreign social media, where numerous videos with images of the country's untouched tourist areas, from the south to the north, are being shared, Liperi says that this has raised the image of Albania and Albanians to another level, far from the image of criminals depicted in films or the media.  /BIRN