"Exotic" foreigners in Albania/ Nigerians, Moroccans and Filipinos lead the influx
INSTAT statistics on the arrivals of foreign nationals in Albania are published periodically by country of origin, but not all countries are presented individually. In addition to the main European and regional countries, a significant part of the arrivals are grouped under the general category “Other Countries of the World”, without further details (see here) . Data for 2025 show that this category is not at all marginal. In 2025, a total of 153,781 arrivals from other countries were recorded.
"Scan Intel" has obtained data from "INSTAT" for the "Other Countries of the World" category, which includes dozens of countries from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, with a number of entries that in some cases exceeds several thousand visitors per year.
Nigeria tops the list, with 11,877 arrivals in 2024 and 15,192 in 2025, ranking as the non-European country with the highest influx in this category. It is followed by the Philippines, Morocco, Mexico, Colombia and Japan, each with thousands of annual arrivals. These six countries alone have recorded over 50,000 arrivals per year, a figure that exceeds the flows from several European countries reported individually in official statistics.
The list also includes a significant number of African countries, such as Algeria, Tunisia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya and Cameroon. From Zimbabwe alone, entries more than doubled from 2024 to 2025.
From Asia, in addition to well-known countries like Japan, South Korea and Kazakhstan, there are also countries less traditionally connected to Albania such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. Although the numbers are not massive, their presence is continuous.
The data also shows a notable presence from Latin America, including Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba and Venezuela. In some cases, entries reach over two thousand visitors per year, an unusual figure for such geographically distant markets.
From the Middle East, in addition to already well-known countries like the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, and even conflicting states like Syria and Iraq also appear.
But which of these "exotic" countries has seen the highest growth in arrivals?
The strongest annual increases in inflows in 2025, compared to 2024, are observed mainly in non-traditional countries for flows to Albania. Zimbabwe records the highest relative increase, with 120.3%, followed by Vietnam with 79.2%, Jordan with 78.7%, Ghana with 75.9% and Syria with 71.9%. Increases are also recorded by Tunisia with 69.3%, Cameroon with 69.7%, Cyprus with 68.2% and Kenya with 62.4%. In contrast, some countries record strong decreases, such as Kuwait with 57.3% and Bahrain with 55.0%.
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