Kosovo Has Ample Potentials for Tourism Development – Better Organization of Sector Is Seen as Necessary
16/09/2015As part of the international events organized by the UBT, a conference “Days of Austrian-Kosovar Tourism 2015,” organized by the Austrian-Kosovar Association (Österreichisch-Kosovarischen Gesellschaft), with the support of the PPSE, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, and the UBT, started today at the UBT premises.
The main goal of the conference promotion of the tourism sector in Kosovo and provision of the Austrian models and experiences in the field of tourism, as a promoter of the economic development of Kosovo in its European integration course, as well as intensification of the cooperation between Austria and Kosovo in the field of tourism and promotion of economic development based on this sector.
Presenting the opening remarks to this event, conferences chairman Gunther Fehlinger highlighted the importance of discussions in the field of tourism, noting that potentials of the state of Kosovo in this field, which is not developed sufficiently, need support from the institutions, both public and private.
UBT Rector Prof. Dr. Edmond Hajrizi noted that the UBT as an institution of higher education was becoming the promoter of tourism in Kosovo; therefore, he said, the UBT was privileged to being part of an activity aimed at promoting the beautiful sights of Kosovo which need to be visited not only by the Kosovars but also by the citizens of the countries of the region and wider. He added that by promoting domestic products, Kosovo automatically created new employment opportunities, especially for the residents of the rural areas.
Dr. Hykmete Bajrami, Minister of Trade and Industry of Kosovo, said the organization of this event was a good opportunity to promote Kosovo’s touristic values. She said the event would help networking between Kosovar and Austrian businesses as well. In the context of the exchange of experiences and benefits from the Austrian model of promoting tourism, it is of a paramount importance to focus on the development of tourism in Kosovo, Minister Bajrami said.
The minister advised that the Kosovo Government considers tourism as a potential for the country’s development, which makes an important contribution to the economic growth, creation of new jobs, regional and local development, improvement of living standard of the Kosovo citizens, and integration of the nature, culture, history, gastronomy, and traditional hospitality in a creative manner, based on the economic experiences and innovative approaches.
“According to the statistical data of the Kosovo State Agency, there are about 20.000 persons employed in the sector of accommodation and catering, and they make over 5 per cent of the total number of those employed in Kosovo,” Minister Bajrami said.
The Trade and Industry minister also noted that tourism was unquestionably an important sector of Kosovo’s economy, which not only that it creates very quickly new jobs but also it creates opportunity for improving Kosovo’s image as the youngest state in Europe, considering that the image presented by a part of the media is different what it is in reality, with exclusive characteristics and unique assets.
Kosovo is currently known in the world for nature-based tourism and nature-based activities. Some of the Kosovo’s touristic assets include: the peaks in the regions of Peje or Sharr mountains, cultural heritage, religious monuments of Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox faith, culture, ethnic diversity, and cultural events with DokuFest being one of the most important ones, Minister Bajrami said.
She also advised that the Kosovo Government was working on human capacities’ building in the sectors of tourism in order to be able to provide qualitative services and to develop policies for promoting local tourism.
“A development plan for the sector of tourism has been drafted and it is in the final stage. Our goal is that by 2020 the tourism sector participates with 7- 8% of the GDP,” Minister Bajrami said, adding that the government had started to review the legislation in effect in order to create a more suitable environment for the development of the private sector.
The MTI minister appealed to the Kosovar touristic operators to follow developments in the tourism sector and to develop offers that would bring tourists from other countries to Kosovo and by offering packages for inside Kosovo for the locals as well, and not to focus only on the offers for the visits abroad.
Baki Hoti, director of the Association of Alternative Tourism of Kosovo, voiced, on behalf of the organization he represents, readiness for cooperation with other organizations in promoting tourism throughout the region. Tourism is an asset for every country, so we need to join all tourism stakeholders in order to promote successfully this field, Hoti said.
Another issue that Hoti considers to be of high importance is the professional staff working in the tourism business. He noted that attention had to be focused on a number of issues, like the identification of the attractive areas, assessment of the staff’s professionalism, professional tourist guides to lead tourists, and an umber of other aspects. There has to be joint exercises in tourism in order to have successes, he said.
Sigrid Mayer argued that promotion of the local, new and attractive products, including touristic sights, is of a paramount importance. “Kosovo has many touristic locations that many people would like to visit, such as Gracanica, the Sharr Mountains, Bogë in Peje, the Prizren Castle, and Gjakova, but also the cultural sector, as is the case with the famous organization of the DokuFest in Prizren,” Sigrid Mayer said.
Ekrem Hyseni from GIZ noted that tourism was the main pillar that connects other sectors, starting from the agriculture, livestock industry, catering, and transport. Hyseni said tourism was one of the main sectors that connects with the others and is the key pillar for the country’s development. He said the tourism sector also had an impact on employment; however, he warned that Kosovo lacked personnel in the sector of tourism, both catering or travel agencies.
Visar Kelmendi, a tourism expert from the USAID and representative of the “Empower,” a five-year project that covers five economy sectors in Kosovo, including tourism, said that as part of this project, they had made an analysis and decided to work in three fields: development of the human capacities, development of physical infrastructure, and promotion of the tourism products of Kosovo.
He also spoke about the training courses that are being held frequently which have an impact in building the capacities in the field of tourism. Kelmendi also noted that they were working in improving the physical infrastructure, in cooperation with the Kosovo Federation Alpine Climbers and currently they were working on the courses at the Bjeshkët e Nemuna [Cursed Mountains] and Sharr Mountains.
“We have developed around 90 kilometers of track on the mountains, especially in Rugova, and now we have already started working on that in Sharr, and this is good news for tourism in that region,” he said.
Andreas Wormsev, manager of the Gracanica Hotel, commented on the activity of the hotels. He advised that the Gracanica Hotel is the only one of its kind in the Pristina zone which is opened for tourists. According to him, important events attract the attention of foreign tourists can help boosting the number of foreign tourists in Kosovo.
“Organization of events of international character, as is DokuFest, also brings foreign visitors and this directly impacts positively this sector. However, you do not have many such events in Pristina due to the lack of the funds and this also affects the small number of tourists in this area,” he said.
Agron Gashi from the Raiffeisen Bank said all the banks were trying to follow the trend and digitalization by taking into consideration the fact that global tourism goes parallel to technology. “The year 2015 resulted in 40% of the transactions made online in this sector. This good example is also being taken into consideration by the Kosovar tourists,” Gashi said.
Shkumbin Brestovci from the IT community spoke about the role of the information technology in promoting tourism services. He referred to a number of investments in various facilities of tourism in Kosovo which could be part of the touristic offer. Mr. Brestovci also spoke about the need to expand the touristic offer in order for it to be more attractive and more all-inclusive.
Blogger Larisa Aka, who has made many visits and study explorations in Kosovo and has decided to live in Kosovo, noted that there is a lack of information for the people wishing to visit Kosovo or if that information exists it is dispersed and difficult to be found. She emphasized the need for joint efforts in the sector of tourism so that the information on the touristic offers of Kosovo could be found in one place, for instance in an electronic platform.
Alban Rafuna, a representative of the BelnKosovo.com webpage, said their main goal was gathering as much information as possible for the international users. “The BelnKosovo.com believes that tourism should be a priority in Kosovo. There will always be clients visiting our country, therefore our mission is to collect information for the foreigners so that they could see it or will be able to do online booking in hotels,” Rafuna said.
Skender Thaci, owner of the Magra Hotel, said the state of Kosovo should contribute to the tourism sector through the grants and to develop and promote tourism. He appealed to the media to promote touristic areas in Kosovo, because, as he put it, our country has a lot of natural beauties. Thaci advised that there were four private and public institutions in the country dealing with the education and management in this sector, noting that staff needed to be prepared to represent tourism adequately.
Valbona Dushi from the Ministry of Trade and Industry said the ministry was working to see that there would be a special department for the tourism in Kosovo. “We have many agreements with Albania, but what we need is for tourism to be a sector on its own,” Dushi said.
Pressing the conference’s concluding remarks, Baki Hoti from the Alternative Tourism Association noted that in order to develop tourism there has to be cooperation among all institutions, starting from the government, respective ministries, directorates of institutions, and others. He also spoke about the importance of the inter-border cooperation as an element that helps the development of tourism, including joint touristic packages for all countries of the region, with Kosovo being one of them, in order to make the touristic offers for the foreign visitors more attractive.
The international conference “Austrian-Kosovar Days of Tourism 2015” will continue tomorrow at Magra Hotel in Boge of Rugova.