Albanian Tourism Unveils Its Best as the “Country of Honor” for 2025 at ITB Berlin
Albania, named the “Country of Honor” for 2025 at ITB Berlin, was revealed today in a spectacular display of colors, sounds, and words at the world’s largest tourism fair. During the event, Prime Minister Rama addressed the audience with the following message:

* * *

Have you ever heard of a law in a country that declares “Our homes belong to God and the guest”? Such a law, written in medieval Albania, has now become an integral part of life here. It is the core of what we call “albanity”—a term that in English might seem like a harmonious blending of Albania, but in Albanian, it means going above and beyond to honor the name, the home, and the guest.
The Peak of Albanian Hospitality Was Proven During World War II, When Albania Protected Its Jewish Friends, Becoming the Only Country in Europe with More Jews After the War Than Before.
We have been, and still are, a country of Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Catholics. Yet, when faced with the choice between the Jews and the devil, our ancestors stood firmly with the Jews, risking their lives by refusing to surrender even a single soul to the Nazis.
Whoever knocks on an Albanian’s door represents the will of God, and by opening those doors, we welcome a guest who is treated like a god. So, if you want to experience what it feels like to be treated like a god, come to Albania.
If you want to meet taxi drivers who act like gods, go to Greece.
Germany has recently been at the center of global attention due to its elections, but here at ITB, the choices are far more diverse and, I dare say, even more entertaining.
This week in Berlin, the world is invited to choose between Albania or Morocco, Spain or Portugal, Greece or the Maldives, China or Japan, and many more countries taking part in this World Cup of tourism.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the only competition where the German team does not start as the favorite.
Allow me to share a brief story, which I hope, although inviting a Balkan man speaking is never short enough by German standards, but this is a true story.
When this first fair was held in 1967, or perhaps 1966, around the same period, Albania had welcomed nearly 1,000 tourists, mostly from East Germany, all unwavering Marxist-Leninists who considered the democratic republic to be a very unstable, liberal, or degenerate one. In fact, the only Western Germans who visited Albania that year were members of the German football team, led by legends like Beckenbauer.
To everyone’s surprise, they managed only a 0-0 draw in Tirana after having been defeated 6-0 in Dortmund. That draw was the only blemish in 8 matches, which almost cost Germany a place in the European Championship, but that’s another story.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the only competition where the German team does not start as the favorite.
Allow me to share a brief story, which I hope, although inviting a Balkan person to speak is never short enough by German standards, but this is a true story.
When this first fair was held in 1967, or perhaps 1966, around the same period, Albania had welcomed only 1,000 tourists, mostly from East Germany, all unwavering Marxist-Leninists who considered the democratic republic to be a very unstable, liberal, or degenerate one. In fact, the only Western Germans who visited Albania that year were members of the German football team, led by legends like Beckenbauer.
To everyone’s surprise, they managed only a 0-0 draw in Tirana after having been defeated 6-0 in Dortmund. This draw was the only blemish in 8 matches, which almost cost Germany a place in the European Championship, but that’s another story.
What remained unchanged for a quarter of a century was that the only Western Germans who visited Albania, until 1990, were the players of the German national football team. They came a total of four times, and we had no more than 100 tourists. During that period, Albania was the “North Korea” of Europe, and the maximum we could achieve in terms of tourism was an average of far fewer than 5,000 visitors per year, and they were all Marxist-Leninists.
As I mentioned this morning during the opening press conference at ITB, there was even a barber shop at the airport at that time, with a very special mission. We became the North Korea of Europe because we left the Soviet empire and married China at the worst period of Chinese history, during the Cultural Revolution. From that, we learned a lot about how to play the devil, and one of those games was “no long hair and no beard.”
This barber at our international airport had the mission of shaving off long beards and cutting the hair of all tourists who came in Marxist-Leninist groups to visit Albania. Karl Marx himself could not enter Marxist Albania without shaving his beard and cutting his hair.
When I took office in 2013, the numbers were completely different from 1990, but even then, they were so low compared to today’s figures—2 million visitors, compared to the 12 million we welcomed last year.
It’s 12 million, not 10, but what is extraordinary is that even if you subtract these 2 million, we still have 10 million, which is still a lot, and we are seeing even higher numbers this year, with January and February setting new records.
Until just a few years ago, the number of Germans visiting Albania was around 100,000, whereas last year it increased to almost 400,000. But we want more because Germans are the best kind of tourists.
When people around the world think of Germans, the first thing that comes to mind is their image as hard workers. However, in reality, Germans are also the top vacationers in the world. They surpass even the Chinese and all others in terms of annual tourist numbers—not because there are many of them in terms of sheer numbers, but because they stay longer overall. So anyone who thinks Germans aren’t very smart and just work a lot is very mistaken.
Germans also take longer vacations than others, and we love them because they drink a lot, eat a lot when they visit us, and one more thing—although there may be more to eat in Germany, the flavors of Albania are much better, and I say this quite modestly.
Let’s start, for example, with coffee. Compare that dark liquid you call coffee with the best espresso out of Rome, and trust me, this is the least painful comparison I can make to avoid offending our hosts. But seriously now, why should Germans visit Albania? If you don’t want to take my word for it, then trust Der Spiegel, which is ready to be unfair to me but still calls Albania a destination to visit, whether for the beaches of Ksamil, which resemble Bora Bora, the ruins of Butrint, or the hiking and climbing in the landscapes of Theth or Valbona. Or let’s take another major German news source, which once again hasn’t always been inclined to write good things about us, Bild: “Albania is no longer a hidden gem. In 2025, it will become a top destination for those seeking sun and sea. And unlike the overcrowded Mediterranean region, in Albania, you can find quiet beaches and enjoy untouched nature.”
It’s a fact, Albania is currently the fastest-growing tourist destination in Europe, and on the United Nations chart, it means that it will be ranked first in the world in a few years, alongside Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but without the World Cup and without Mecca.
I agree with Bild, we are no longer a hidden gem. We are slowly becoming a tourist power, at least when measured for income per capita. Our record breaking growth has marked an 80% increase just in the last 5 years, proving that Albania is a rising star that is capturing the world’s attention. Berlin, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Baden-Baden, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, and Düsseldorf all have direct connections to Albania, many of them with low-cost flights. Germans love to spend, but they are also big savers and they really enjoy low-cost flights, I know this. During the peak of the tourist season, other destinations are also added.
With a perfect combination of affordability and breathtaking landscapes, Albania has become one of the hottest tourist destinations in the world, and this is just the beginning. It’s the beginning because we eagerly anticipate a brighter economic future, a sustainable growth that will be shaped not only by being an attractive tourist destination but also by our role as a model for eco-friendly tourism and luxury experiences.
Over the last decade, we’ve seen a 2.5-fold increase in Gross Domestic Product and more than a twofold increase in income per capita. And now, we are adding even more to the experiences of our country, where, in just 28,000 square kilometers, you can find 2 seas, 9 rivers, many lakes, a variety of valleys, magnificent mountains, and you can travel within the small perimeter of our country to experience the Mediterranean, the Swiss Alps, Northern Europe, hot sand, and cooler nights during the hot summer, but also so much more.
We will host the European Political Committee in May, and all the leaders of our continent will know to come to Albania. Likewise, the famous Giro D’Italia will take place, and we will also have our capital as the Mediterranean capital of culture and dialogue, among other things.
For us, having this presence at ITB Berlin is something that no one, truly no one in our country, ever imagined would happen while they were alive. Not only is it happening, but it is such a humbling experience and an inspiring recognition.
I truly want to thank, first and foremost, ITB for showing so much grace and for allowing us to enjoy this reward, giving us something that we, as Albanians, have fought for so long— the opportunity to show the world that we are completely different from the stigma of so many years in Germany and other parts of the world.
To conclude, let me tell you that for half a century we did not have the opportunity to play in the West, but now, to everyone’s surprise, our team is playing better than Hertha, as far as I understand. So, this is what we are asking for. We don’t ask for favors, we only ask for fair play.
The first recorded German traveler in Albania was Arnold von Harff, who visited our land in the 15th century. He stopped in our country and was so amazed by our unique tradition and language that he documented dozens of typical Albanian words. These words are an extraordinary testament of our rich heritage, of which our language is also a part, a direct descendant of Sanskrit, an independent branch of the Indo-European language tree.
There is yet a final reason to come to Albania, especially if you’re German. Albania is never boring.
Thank you very much!