COUNTRY: Albania

CLIENT:
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

PROJECT TITLE:
"Training programmes for tourism stakeholders of the South Coastal Region of Albania & Marketing consulting and promotion of the Albanian mountain region and the South Costal Region via press and tour operator incentives"

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Albania's southern coast stands for extraordinary nature combined with cultural heritage and overwhelming landscapes of the Ionian Sea. The 150-kilometer southern coast comprises two national parks Llogara and Butrint, and the peninsula of Karaburun and Narta lagoon. The wonderful landscapes also due to differences in altitudes of over 1,500 meters, combined with the rich variety of habitats and the archaeological heritage from Illyrian, Greek, Roman and Ottoman rules make the southern coast an important region for the national economy. The GIZ project "Integrated sustainable development of the southern coastal region" is supporting rural development in the area, covered by municipalities of Vlora, Himara and Saranda, with focus on rural tourism. Further, the project supports the development of business models of rural tourism in three pilot areas: guesthouse accommodation and services, hiking and mountain biking trails, culture tours; and local products development and its promotion.

The aim of the project is to unlock and introduce the two undiscovered regions of Albania, the romantic South Costal Region and the mountainous wild North directly to the German speaking travel market and to open and tap distribution channels for the newly developed sustainable tourism products. Service related tourism stakeholders should get prepared and trained to become competitive and service oriented and new viable business models to create additional income for local guesthouses should be developed.

AGEG Tourism for Sustainability Consulting AGEG Tourism for Sustainability Consulting provided the following services:

• Technical concept and realization for the market introduction of the new tourism destinations South Coastal Region and Albanian Alps via the design and realisation of:
  • A tailor-made press journey / strategic press campaign for the German speaking travel market
  • A tailor-made format of a discovery journey for sustainable tour operator from the German speaking market
  • "Sustainable Market Forum" for tourism stakeholders, press media and travel market
• Development of a viable approach for a public private partnership measure
• Elaboration of viable business models to generate additional income for small local guesthouses
• Complete development and realisation of tailor-made capacity building programmes for tourism relates services
  • Training programme on quality, service and sustainability for guesthouses
  • Training programme on the professional set-up, operation and management of Tourist Information Centres