Advocating for creating DMO's in Albania

A project by DMO ALBANIA, under the IdeAl project of Co-PLAN, Institute for Habitat Development, financed by European Union.

Duration of the project 15 December 2020- 15 December 2021

Why this project

The National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism Development 2019-2023 is starting to be implemented, but still has many difficulties. The Goal 5 of this strategy is related to Development of a Destination Management model, consolidation of a legal and institutional framework for the management and operation of a Destination Management Organisations and monitoring and supporting this DMOs. Since it was approved, nothing has been done regarding DMOs. We, as DMO Albania are the authors of two initiatives which are the bases for a DMO: Visit Tirana (www.visit-tirana,com), a marketing city platform promoting Tirana, a privately initiative to brand the capital of Albania as a tourist destination. And the second is Visit Gjirokastra, which is supported by Risi Albania and is actually the best model of a future DMO in Albania. But a legal framework is needed to support the functioning of this DMOs in Albania, without the support of donors. This was the focus of the 1-year project to raise awareness to tourism stakeholders for the importance of DMO and to lobby to policymakers to establish a legal framework for functioning DMOs in Albania.

The phases of the project

Meeting with donors working with DMOs, was our first step in this project. The aim was to learn about all the initiatives for creating DMOs in different regions in Albania and to synchronize our efforts to ask policymakers for a legal framework for DMOs

The second step was to inform the tourism stakeholders about the importance of DMO-s, to see their willingness to participate in these organizations and also to get their feedback about destination management. We organized meetings in 3 areas: Berat, Pogradec and Saranda,

The third step was to meet officials from Ministry of Tourism and Environment, National Tourism Agency, members of Parliament to inform them about the activities and our efforts for DMOs and also to ask them why the Strategy of Sustainable Tourism is still not implemented. We organized a national round table for DMOs, with the presence of Minister of Tourism and Environment Mrs Mirela Kumbaro and other high officials in tourism sector to discuss all our findings and recommendations about DMOs in Albania

Based in all our efforts, meetings, and campaigns for raising awareness for DMOs, we prepared a document with recommendations for establishing DMOs in Albania and the urgent need for a legal framework to regulate this sector

Please find below the document with our recommendations:

Donor

The project is implemented by DMO Albania and supported by Co-plan Albania, under the project IdeAl, financed by European UNION