The Role of Organizations to Sustainable Tourism Development

Albania’s integration process into Europe required the acknowledgement of advantages provided by the Public-Private- Partnership (PPP). In this partnership, private and public resources and responsibilities are divided in a way that the partners’ efforts complete one another. This paper considers tourism policy and project and initiatives in tourist destinations as a possibility about sustainable development. Whilst currently there is commitment to see the tourism sector progress and grow at regional, municipal and commune level, the management of the sector is weak and subject to the vagaries of elected politicians. Newly elected officials tend to bring in new administration, change policy and develop new strategies. There are some organizations in our country, which have helped to the development of tourism. The paper reviews the role of different organizations in the development of tourist businesses, in particularity in Korca’Region.

Key words: Public-Private- Partnership, tourism organizations, tourism strategy

1. INTRODUCTION

The importance of the PPPs has to be treated in two main viewpoints:

First, how and how much do they contribute to better meeting the role of the government (at all levels) in the current new social, economic, and political conditions?

Second, what are the advantages or specific contributions of the PPPs to better satisfying the requirements of all human society factors.

In fact, the basic objectives of public authorities are:

• The protection of public interests

• Planning and control of public policies’ application

• The establishment of an opportune environment which stimulates investments

Development of tourist industry on global level encouraged many European countries to address this industry. Albania as part of it, compiled the Tourism Strategy which ranks some of its priorities like: promotion of the importance of natural and cultural inheritance and the eco-tourism as a basis for new development opportunities; provision of a possible supporting management for tourism effects on countries with natural and cultural heritage. Also, it ranked number of advantages for the involving sectors such as: better preservation of places and countries with cultural heritage; new working places and increase of incomes from cultural tourism and ecotourism in local communities; local inhabitants will see the profits from local products. The strategy emphasizes the natural and cultural tourism which are considered as a profitable means to the rural communities.

1. TOURISM PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

There are some organizations in our country, which have helped to the development of tourism. The tourism projects and initiatives carried out by the different organizations are described in this section and most organizations plan to continue supporting the sector in the future.

SNV: SNV has been very active in the tourism sector since 2005. The organization has carried out the following projects during this period: facilitating the budgeting process through participation, prioritizing tourism; assisting the Korça City Municipality to organize events (beer festival, pie festival, end of year fair); inventory and cataloguing of Korça region monuments and attractions through a participatory process; organising a conference on tourism; other activities include creating partnerships and cooperation with different

SNV had continued mentoring on the TAP processes and had implicated in the marketing and product development actions.

GTZ: GTZ has been involved in the Korça Region tourism sector since 2002 through its economic development and employment promotion programme. Tourism has been one of its priority sectors for intervention. In addition to the publications listed above, the following activities were carried out over this period:

Renovation of guest houses around Prespa Lake; Tourism Strategy for Korça Region, in collaboration with external consultants and the University of Korça; the tourism strategy chapter in the Regional Development Strategy

GTZ has sponsored a number of training initiatives including: Hotel management; improvement of service quality (waiters, chefs, and housemaid); trainings for tour guides; english for waiters

GTZ has done a number of plans in the tourism sector such as: establishment of a local tourism board; support for the establishment of a tourism information centre (in cooperation with the Korça City Municipality);training staff of these offices; selection and analyses of products (cultural, nature, rural and business tourism);elaboration of tourism packages in cooperation with local tour operators; development of tour destination packages; support the publication of marketing promotion materials; maintenance of the website: www.korcainfo.com; cooperation with the GTZ office in Ohrid in the tourism marketing of the region; training at hotels for the improvements of service quality; promotion of service standards.

USAID: The tourism sector is a component of USAID’s Enterprise Demand and Export Market Services (EDEM) project. Over the years, several initiatives have been launched by USAID in the tourism sector. The main objectives cover two aspects: building the capacity of tour operators in the industry; and improving the image of Albania abroad.

The initiatives have included: Journalist familiarization tours;supporting Albania’s presence at international fairs; National Geographic’s documentary film on adventure tourism in Northern Albania; organising several courses such as: Tour Guide Training; Customer Service Training; application of information technologies (i.e. designing website for hotels).

In the Korça Region, USAID have been involved in collaboration with SNV, it organised training of local stakeholders in tourist villages (handicrafts, management of guest houses…).

The organization works directly with the private sector and believes in developing partnership with other organizations to avoid duplication and to ensure synergy and collaboration.

To be successful tourism development relies on the successful implementation of mid- to long term strategies; continuity and sustained action is vital. Frequent changes of administration and ideas can only be detrimental to the development and management of the tourism sector in the Korça Region. The private sector in the Korça Region is not organized and therefore not politically strong enough to administer tourism.

Tourism in most countries is led and driven by the private sector — though within the legal and planning framework set by the public sector. In recent years, many tourism destinations have realized the need of involving the private sector also in the strategic planning, development and marketing of tourism to ensure the long-term sustainable development of the sector.

This is generally ensured through effective public-private partnerships. The issue of private sector involvement is of utmost importance, and cannot be treated lightly. Often, the private sector is expected to contribute financially to tourism destination management, but is not given the accompanying involvement in the planning and monitoring process of this development.

The requirement for both public and private sector commitment to tourism development is essential for the planning, sustainable development and marketing of tourism in any destination. And commitment means willingness to invest the relatively limited resources required to ensure the necessary planned development.

For the public sector, it is often limited to realising that to achieve set targets of tourism development, there is a need to allocate sufficient resources for the management, marketing and promotion of tourism that will ensure these targets.

Similarly, if the private sector wants to be involved in the planning and management of tourism development, it must be willing to participate in the cost of destination management to the mutual benefit of the expected development, even if the cost coverage initially is nominal.

Therefore, it is clear that there is a pressing need for a management structure at the Korça regional level to be put in place to help the sector develop and progress and provide it proper leadership and management.

This new structure should be a clear partnership between the public and private sector with both contributing resources (financial, human and in kind); it should be a permanent and independent, and safe from dissolution because of a change in administration. Its financing arrangements should be guaranteed by statute and its resources totally within its own control.

Tourism Development in Albania

Open Data Albania has conducted a study on the development of tourism in Albania during recent years. The report is based on the data provided by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, and INSTAT.

The most important indicator of tourism development is the number of foreigners visiting Albania, and the revenues collected from tourism. At the same time, in order to compare the development of tourism in a country it is important to calculate the tourism capacities of the country.

During 2010, the number of visitors was 2.3 million, compared to 1.8 million from the previous year. This is a 29 % growth versus 2009.

Over the years, with the exception of 2009, the month with the largest influx of foreign visitors has been the month of August, which coincides with the summer tourism in the coastal areas. Whereas the rest of the months have a much more limited number of visitors. This shows that apart from water tourism, the other types of tourism are underdeveloped.

Even though the number of visitors is an important indicator of the tourism development for a country, it is important to analyze dhe revenue increase coming from this activity.

The hotel occupancy has changed:

In 2010, the number of hotels was 290, or 19 % more than in 2009. The number of beds in 2010 was 11,793, or 8 % more than in 2009. Based on this data, the capacity of Albanian hotels has not yet adapted to the increase in the number of foreign visitors. As a result one could understand why a good part of the visitors has found accomodation at private individual homes, which are unregistered.

It is very important that Albania develops all types of tourism, not just the water tourism, in order to maximize revenues. At the same time considerable improvement is warranted in terms of the quality of serice, cleanliness, order and all other factors that play a role in not only increasing the number of tourists visiting Albania out of curiosity, but also the number of people that revisit it due to having had a pleasant experience.

1. DESTINATION MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS

Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) have the responsibility for destination product and through incentives and policies facilitate the development of products, which is desirable from the demand side.DMOs should therefore be the guardians of the image and resources of destinations (D. Buhalis,Tourism Management Special Issue: The Competitive Destination).

In order to realize the above mentioned activities there is an obvious need of (professional) human resources, and an organizational structure which is responsible for destination management. However, the tasks as described above do not necessarily have to be fulfilled by:(J.Kloiber,2008)

• governmental institutions of all involved levels and departments

• tourism sector (tourism businesses, tour operators, agencies and tourism associations)

• main tourist demand segments

• environmental care takers (NGOs, protected area administration)

• other NGOs and citizens’ initiatives (social- cultural, sport associations)

• other economic sectors (agricultural, trade, building), chamber of commerce

• (potential) private investors and public donors and supporting development agencies single tourism organization. Some of the tasks can be outsourced or they do vary depending on the organizations geographic level (local, regional or national) and size of its area of intervention.

But DMOs participate in major annual tourism and travel fairs in Berlin, London, Milan, Paris and elsewhere. There they have the opportunity to meet intermediaries and members of the public to promote their offerings. They produce brochures, which they distribute to all their partners in the industry and to consumers who require information on the destination. (D.Buhalis,Tourism Management Special Issue: The Competitive Destination),

1. TOURISM IN THE KORÇA REGION

The city of Korca is situated in southeastern part of Albania. The area occupied by the city today is a former Illyrian settlement. The potential for tourism development in Korca and the surrounding area is high thanks to its historical, cultural and natural wealth.Korca is mentioned as a castle in 1280 and in 1431, as an inhabited castle. After 1484, the city started to expand and development gaining the feature of an urban and regional centre. The city has participated historically in intensive exchange of culture and trade with Byzantium and Greece.Korca’s region illustrates and encompassed three of these areas:historical tourism; archaeological tourism, religious tourism.Historical tourism encompasses the design, planning and application of historic elements used by tourism as a source of cultural attraction, such as monuments, tangible and intangible recourses and architecture. Archaeological tourism is very important for many tourists. So, Korca’s region is well-known for the artifacts housed in the Archaeology museum, some of which date back to the early Iron Age, with others from the Hellenic, Roman and Byzantine periods.Religious tourism may be considered as the oldest manifestation of tourism.Korca’s region is well-known for old churches and monasteries, such as Orthodox Cathedral, which is the biggest in the Albania.

Korca’s destination as a city should not seen as separate from the tourist villages surrounding it, due to tourists are coming to the city to visit the city and tourist villages around, to take part in activities or to use the accommodations and traditional dishes. Municipal programs have transformed Korca to «The City of Holidays», so Korca is a famous city in Albania and the neighboring countries. The cultural activities help to increase the number of foreign and domestic tourists in rural areas, especially in summer time due to their favorable climate and fresh air.

Korca’s Destination Management Organization(DMO)

DMO is a nonprofit organization in Korca’s Region that contributes to sustainable tourism, cultural heritage and regional development, by enabling good governance, developing civil society and empowering.

The key roles of the DMO are: to coordinate the implementation of strategic plans affecting tourism in the region; to enhance public-private partnership within the tourism sector and to be the local point for the coordination of tourism planning and development in Korca Region. This structure has these departments: Marketing Department;Visitor Services; Development Department.

The Albania Accommodation Booking System (AABS) was developed so that it provided both a useful tool for accommodation establishments in the region, providing them with a guest booking and billing system, and as a by product generating monthly accommodation statistics that the DMO could use to monitor the sector.In each instance the AABS was installed on the hotel’s reception desk computer. A user manual has been written in English and is being translated into Albanian region. However, the DMO is to meet with them at an appropriate time in the future.

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