TIRANA, February 7/ATA/ There has been an increase in the numbers of tourist inflows to Albania in the beginning of 2024. Thus, in January 489,599 foreign tourists visited our country or 30% more than January last year, said Minister of Tourism and Environment Mirela Kumbaro.

According to the data processed by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, at the top of the list there are the citizens of Kosovo with 215 thousand visitors or about 30% more compared to the same period last year; then follow Italian visitors who were 53 thousand or 50.4% more, while the third place are visitors from Montenegro with 52,662 entries or +32.6% compared to January last year.

Also, among the groups with the highest increase in tourist arrivals compared to last year, there are tourists from Poland, Romania, Spain, England, Sweden and France.

Kumbaro has recently considered the year 2024 as the touchstone and a great challenge and responsibility to successfully cope with the increased tourist flows.Last year, Albania had a tourist boom, more than 10 million tourists.

Some of the measures taken by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment for this year are the support of 8 coastal municipalities with additional cleaning operators, the establishment of a Task Force in cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy to control the management of polluted water and to improve the quality of the waters on the beaches, the mandatory certification of marine tourism operators and the presence of observers at each beach station. Albania is also preparing to participate in ITB Berlin, the largest tourism fair in the world, which takes place at the beginning of March