- 120,000 British nationals now visit Albania each year as its tourism sector booms
Brits are flocking to Albania as the country experiences a tourism boom thanks to its long sandy beaches, good-value hotels and cheap restaurants, travel experts told MailOnline today.
More than 120,000 British nationals now visit the Balkan country – which was under communist rule until 1992 – each year as its tourism sector enjoys its best year yet.
And the mountainous country will be even more attractive to Brits this winter when Ryanair and Wizz Air launch new budget flights.
Last month saw the highest number of searches on Skyscanner for travel from the UK to Albania since the start of 2022, an increase of 58% compared to July last year.
Research by MailOnline today found that the average meal for two at a mid-range restaurant in Albania costs just £29 in total, while a beer will cost an average of £1.67. The cheapest towns for a meal are Shkoder and Vlore where it costs just £21 for two. The cheapest town for a beer is Berat at just 80p.
Data compiled by cost of living database Numbeo also reveals that the capital Tirana is the most expensive place for a meal out, but it still costs just £33 for two, while a beer costs £1.70.
Hotels are also reasonable, with Booking.com data showing that hotels in Tirana cost just £41 a night for a three-star, £60 for a four-star and £116 for a five-star. Even cheaper accommodation can be found in the picturesque medieval town of Berat, where a three-star hotel costs just £31 a night on average.
Despite claims from Albanian migrants that the country is unsafe when they try to claim asylum in the UK after crossing the Channel, it could be a welcome holiday destination for Britons seeking more affordable options abroad while inflation is rampant.
Ryanair is set to make the most of growing interest in Albania by launching new flights from Stansted, Manchester and Edinburgh on October 31.
Its first flight from Stansted will depart at 6.30am that day with prices starting from just £17. There will also be a first flight from Manchester at 6.05am on October 31 costing £42. The first from Edinburgh will depart that day at 1.45pm, costing £55.
The cheapest Ryanair flights from London in November are currently on offer for just £39 return.
The new routes are among 17 that Ryanair will launch from Tirana for this year’s winter schedule. The airline said Albania would become the 37th country in its network and would offer up to 200 weekly flights across Europe.
Meanwhile, Wizz Air, which has served Tirana from its main UK hub at London Luton since 2018, will also launch flights from Liverpool, Birmingham and Edinburgh this winter.
Last year, 463,451 passengers landed in Tirana from London, and the Foreign Office states that “more than 120,000 British nationals visit Albania each year.”
Albania is currently enjoying its most successful tourism year to date, having welcomed 3.4 million foreign nationals in the first six months of this year.
This is an increase of 33 percent compared to 2022, according to the country’s Statistics Institute. He adds that the month of June alone recorded more than a million visits, an increase of 15 percent compared to the same period last year.
These figures are huge compared to 2010, when Albania welcomed only 1.28 million international tourists for the entire year.
As recently as 2019, that figure had nearly tripled to 3.3 million for the entire year. But today, similar numbers are entering the country in just six months.
Laura Lindsay, travel trends expert at Skyscanner, told MailOnline today: ‘Albania has been on the radar of travelers looking for something different for some time, but as we’ve seen the demand for Travel is coming back seriously, it is becoming a popular vacation destination.
“Most people haven’t discovered it yet, but the flights and tourism infrastructure are in place and there are fewer people.
“In addition to the beautiful beaches of the Albanian Riviera and lower cost of living that make it an ideal budget summer destination, Albania has historic towns to explore and a thriving festival scene with events taking place their place throughout the global musical calendar.”
Andrea Godfrey, of tour operator Regent Holidays, told The Daily Telegraph the company had seen a 42 per cent increase in inquiries and a 62 per cent increase in bookings for Albania over the last year.
She added: “We have seen growing interest in Albania, fueled largely by the perception of it as a good value beach destination.
“We are also seeing the arrival of a younger clientele, due to the popularity of Albanian resorts on Instagram.”
Albania has a population of 2.7 million and is a relatively unknown destination for Brits, with Italians currently making up the largest proportion of tourists.
Its main international airport is in Tirana, but there is another in Kukes, near the border with Kosovo. A third in Vlore, near the coast, is under construction and should be completed by next April.
This is expected to attract many more tourists due to its prime location close to some of Albania’s best beaches, with UK operators expected to make the most of this by launching new holiday deals there.
Currently, some tour operators who organize trips for Britons to the beaches of southern Albania take them to Corfu and then ferry them across, which takes around 30 minutes.
Elsewhere in Albania, popular historic areas include the archaeological sites of Apollonia and Butrint as well as the mountain town of Berat, all often visited on guided tours.
But many Albanian migrants travel in the opposite direction. Of the 45,755 people who crossed the Channel in small boats last year, 12,301 – more than a quarter – came from Albania and most sought asylum after arriving.
The increase in the number of Channel crossings has also reportedly led to a rise in crime in Britain, with 80 Albanian migrants convicted of crimes including murder, rape and kidnapping in the first four months of 2023 alone.
The National Crime Agency has previously revealed that a “significant number” of Channel Albanian migrants work for drug gangs once in the UK and send hundreds of millions of pounds to Albania each year.