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Shqipëria Posted on 2026-04-20 19:02:00

Mountains Package, Rama: Albania's potential for tourism income is still largely untapped

From SCAN TV

Mountains Package, Rama: Albania's potential for tourism income is still

Prime Minister Rama held an informational meeting with agritourism entrepreneurs, as part of the government's commitment to support the development of this strategic sector, where existing instruments and new programs were presented that will soon be made available to all those who want to be protagonists in this field, - with particular emphasis on the Mountain Package, which is marking a significant increase in interest and applications throughout the country.

The Prime Minister emphasized that agritourism remains one of the main pillars of economic development and sustainable tourism, while underlining that government support will continue to expand through new programs, including the "Double Your Enterprise" initiative, which aims to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises in this field.

Special attention was paid to the Mountain Package, which enables citizens to invest in their lands even in the absence of property titles, through a simplified process guaranteed by the state. The Prime Minister clarified that this package is not oriented towards large investors, but is specifically designed for families and small entrepreneurs who want to develop inherited properties.

 

* * *

Excerpt from the speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama

 

The new national program that we are preparing, which will be launched soon, I believe that by the end of the month we will have the agreement between the Bank of Albania, second-tier banks and the government for a financing line supported by the Albanian government to support any project of anyone who has a small or medium-sized enterprise and has the ambition to grow it. 

We have called the program "Double Your Enterprise", but it doesn't mean that it has to be double, it could be 50%, it could even be triple, depending on the project.

This program will be supported by a direct credit line from the Bank of Albania, which will be processed by second-tier banks based on applications, will be guaranteed by the Albanian government with a sovereign guarantee and, on the other hand, will have a lower loan interest rate than commercial loans, this is understood, plus there will be a limit of up to 2 million euros. 

It will not be possible to access it from large companies, but it will be accessed by startups, as I said, small and medium-sized enterprises, workshops, and of course agrotourism that will need to grow.

Now of course when we talk about the growth of agritourism I don't mean simply increasing the number of rooms or the amount of construction volume in the territory where agritourism is located. The growth of agritourism is also the expansion of its production and processing capacities outside its own borders.

So, an agritourism can have a vineyard somewhere, it can have a farm somewhere, it can have a dairy somewhere, it can have a jam factory somewhere, not necessarily in that territory, and if it has one or if it wants to have one, then that is completely sufficient for you to access the program. 

I believe the program comes at the right time.

I have had many, very valuable communications with founders of small and medium-sized enterprises that produce, because here we are talking about production, we are talking about agro-processing, we are talking about export, and of course you know better than I do that tourism is part of export and agro-tourism is part of export, so this will be the destination of this program. 

On the other hand, of course there is the Mountain Package.

I believe that each and every one of you and each of you that there are some women here who are protagonists of this transformation that has happened to our tourism industry through the introduction of agrotourism. Everyone can want to have an agrotourism network, not just an agrotourism, but an agrotourism network and this is what the Mountain Package serves. It is understood that the mountain package, unlike what has been mistreated or distorted in the information channels, is not a package for large companies, it is not a package for large investors, it has nothing to do with these categories and even less is it a package to give territories, public lands for private developments. This is not at all the purpose of the package, this is not at all the object of the package. 

The Mountains Package arose from the need to address a very large problem that has its origins far back in time, in Law 7501 and the conflict with this law of many families in certain areas of the country, mainly in the north and northeast, but also in other areas that have not recognized Law 7501 as a valid instrument for their land, that have not received any kind of land use certificate based on Law 7501, and that have redistributed the land immediately after the change of regime on the basis of the old borders and have no problems with each other. 

So the inherited problem is that these people are unable to access finance and are unable to build legally, because they do not have a property title.

We made an attempt to address this problem with a new law called 20/20, a law that took a long time because, you know, if you get one lawyer, you get one opinion, if you get two, you get two opinions, if you get a third, then you get no opinion at all because there are three opinions and no one can agree on anything.

But in fact, the law took a long time to be formulated and did not give us the effect it should have, because it presumes the written agreement of many, all those around, which resulted from all the efforts that, not only are in different countries of the world. In short, the conversation did not work as much as we expected and for this reason the Mountains Package was born. What does this mean? It means that many Albanians who are in emigration or who are in the city have land, they have old houses, which they want to develop, but they have no opportunity to develop them because even if they have the money, they cannot get permission because they do not have the title of ownership. 

With the new law called the Mountains Package, this is made possible by applying directly, expressing interest to the municipality and saying: "This land here is mine". The municipality takes this expression of interest, posts a list for 45 days where it makes it public for anyone who claims otherwise and thinks otherwise and I repeat, this is based largely on the fact that here the law serves those who are on the lands of the ancestors who do not have conflicts and there are many of them, especially in the areas that we have studied and with whom we have had many intensive conversations. 

In 45 days, a reasoned objection must be submitted, if it does not come, the list goes to the Municipal Council. The Municipal Council approves it and the person submits the application. This approval is valid only for this. It is valid only for applying, for obtaining permission for a project, it is not valid for anything else. You cannot take the land and sell it, nor can you rent it, nothing at all. You do not even get a title deed. You do not get a title deed yet. You go to the relevant instance, apply with the project and say: This is the project I want to build. 

The project is approved and you build. Only after you have completed the construction, not before, do you receive the title of ownership over that construction and over that investment, you have to finish it.

You cannot mortgage the land, because practically it is useless because you have a mortgage and at the same time because you have the land you cannot use it. You cannot enjoy a title of ownership without investing in that land and the law provides that in any case when at a certain time someone else appears claiming to be the owner, goes to court and wins, you do not deal with it, the state takes it over. It is then up to the state to compensate the person who may appear as a claimant to this property.

This is the trajectory that this package follows and it is very pro-business, it is very favorable and it is absolutely based on the inherited right of property. It is absolutely not based on "come on, since we have the Mountains Package let's give some land in the mountains" because we don't need to do this, this is not the goal at all, the others, the others.

So, who has heard that this is being done to give it to those kulaks, that “oligarch” is the transplantation of kulak into democratic jargon and this transplantation has been done and is used by those who say they fought communism, but those toxic remnants of communism have a head. And who is the enemy of the people? The kulak! We cannot say kulak, we invent the oligarch. The word “oligarch” has no connection at all with the Albanian reality. In Albania there is no oligarch to be clear, that an oligarch is someone who decides, it is not someone who does business and benefits and this project, this program is simply and only for those who want to develop their land, want to rekindle the fireplace in their grandparents' house, want to build a farm, want to build an agribusiness, want to build an agro-processing point in the village and they will have all our support. 

I believe both of these are important for your part, while for everyone else I would say that it is very important for the entire tourism industry to realize that what seems to have reached the peak has only just begun.

Albania's potential is extraordinary, it is still very untapped and the opportunity for Albania to generate much more income from tourism is very great and when I say generate much more income from tourism, I don't mean 35 million tourists coming here because we don't need them. We don't need to become an overloaded destination of mass tourism which is a tourism that brings a lot of people, but who are not high consumers, they are low consumers, in the sense that they consume little and we need to target those who consume a lot and agrotourism can become, so to speak, the transformers in this regard as well, by increasing the quality of service first, by maintaining a balance with prices, second. 

Many in the tourism industry today in Albania do not understand, at least if you look at the price list. It is not that I am questioning your intelligence, but if you look at the price list in many places in Albania, starting from Vlora, which is a phenomenon in this case, and you look at the investment, you think that this man who has made all the investment does not understand what he is doing to his investment with the price list he puts in front of you. You interrupt the future by making lists, menus or room price tables with that hunger to earn today and what you will earn tomorrow, in fact you are making the gravedigger of your investment. It is a tragedy that has happened to quite a few countries from which we should learn. If you invest in a restaurant with straw and you have a problem with the amount you have invested, you can play this game and win what you have to earn today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, then when no one comes to you anymore, you leave the straw there and go away. But if you make investments of millions of euros, tens of millions of euros for hotels, for agrotourism, where I know and you are aware that these investments require a lot of money at the beginning and then the return is slow, but steady, then you have to think strategically to get back what you have invested and earn on what you have invested step by step, step by step, step by step.

 

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