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OPINEWS

Tourism: new season, old problems

Politiko 2025-06-30 18:27:23

Tourism: new season, old problems

By Ilir Kalemaj

The arrival of the new summer season (un)naturally brings old, lingering and untreated problems. Just like the mixed waters that routinely spill into the sea despite millions of euros spent on their differentiation in coastal areas. Or like other millions of euros reduced to ashes, just like the fires that are raging from south to north and whose arsonist is rarely found.

It often seems like a hand that will free up more space for the construction jungle that is devouring ever larger areas in a country where the population is growing. Greed in action, blind to socio-economic realities. Meanwhile, the burning of mountains of garbage, as in the case of Vlora in the open air, has become a plague at the beginning of every tourist season. A city caught between torn roads, lack of drinking water and the stench of garbage burning in the open air is not at all welcoming to thousands of tourists, local and foreign, who may feel ambivalent about responsibility, whether the main burden of blame lies with the central or local government.

This tourist season, beyond the euphoria of government figures where an immigrant is counted both as such and as a tourist, has been generally dominated by apathy. Apathy in the completion of road axes under construction, starting with the Tirana-Durres one, which apart from tripling the initial cost, does not seem to be in any hurry to complete within optimal deadlines. Meanwhile, the alternative Ndroq road was also decided to be built in parallel at the same time, turning the main artery of the country into a traffic jam. We hear promises for electric trains repeated every decade, but as the decades pass, the wait resembles that of Becket's Godot that the prime minister likes to mention so much.

Meanwhile, other old problems continue. For example, state authorities, from the obligation to control the coastline to the absence of beach guards, have caused quite a few wounds that leave their mark not only on the few families affected by the tragedy, including several cases of drowning, but also on a much wider community. It has also damaged the tourism sector, which is a generator of employment in this season.

Also worth mentioning are the uncontrolled movements of cruise ships that have allowed their toilets to empty into Albanian waters without penalty, pollution with oil and fuel oil spills in the Riviera without penalty, etc. Meanwhile, we have returned to the parking and refueling of expensive yachts that, apart from their convenience, do not incur any expenses in terms of supporting local businesses.

On the other hand, the high prices, especially in coastal and tourist areas, which are overwhelming for poor families but have also massively affected the middle class living in these areas, do not help at all. It is no coincidence that European citizens from Dubrovnik to Venice, from Barcelona to Nice have been led against mass tourism, which increases costs for locals, pollutes the environment and brings little benefit to the economy in general and the fair distribution of income. In countries without a development plan and sustainable growth strategy like ours, the problems become even more acute.

On the other hand, the increase in fuel prices, reaching Swiss standards in a country with African salaries, has made any attempt to explore the Albanian coast through mobile tourism more expensive. The season started late, the division of beaches causes conflicts as usual, even within families, while public beaches suffer from even the most basic things like placing trash cans at the disposal of vacationers.

These problems, like those of electoral administration, are recurring problems, for which there seems to be no will to address them at least and no serious effort to solve them. Sometimes it seems that they are not even understood because the administration often stands in other dimensions than those of the ordinary citizen. Or the gluttony mixed with incompetence that has spawned a kakistocracy immune to criticism, is of such proportions that it leaves no room for any kind of reflection.

That perhaps the priority during each new tourist season is simply to increase numbers, to portray them as a government success, to distribute coveted plots of land on the coast to each government client disguised as a strategic investor, and there is no room to think about encouraging public policies, long-term and sustainable development, or maintaining minimum environmental standards and criteria.

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