Can the region of Gjirokastra be a model of sustainable tourism destination?  This was the topic of a webinar organized by Visit-Gjirokastra association, with the support of RisiAlbania, a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation-SDC. The webinar aimed to present the criteria of Global Sustainable Tourism Council – GSTC and how these standards can be implemented in Albanian destinations, or tourism business such as tour operators and hotels. Members of Visit Gjirokastra Association (VGA), representatives of Municipalities of Gjirokastra and Permet, Representatives of RisiAlbania, representatives from universities, tourism guides and experts in tourism attended the webinar. Earlier in 2020 two members of VGA received training in Switzerland from Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) through the support of RisiAlbania. One of the objectives was to share and transfer knowledge to other board members and further to tourism business community.

Why Gjirokastra as a region?

Gjirokastra has already established a public -private organization for tourism in the region with the aim to manage the entire district as tourism destination. It includes 7 municipalities: Gjirokastra, Përmet, Tepelena, Këlcyra, Libohova, Dropull and Memaliaj. Visit Gjirokastra Association (VGA) has already identified tourist attractions in the area, cultural monuments, archaeological parks and natural protected parks, intangible heritage such traditions, music, costumes and the culinary. The region is currently being promoted through the website and social media www.visit-gjirokastra.com.

This association has done enormous efforts to promote the whole destination including smaller municipalities and villages, where main focus was primarily put on marketing. However currently due to the covid19 pandemic and shortage of tourists, this is the right moment to think how to manage this destination, how to approach sustainable principles, and inform all the new members how they can start thinking about preserving the destination, nature, culture and tradition, as well as how to produce less waste.

Advantages and challenges of district of Gjirokastra as potential sustainable destination

The district of Gjirokastra has some advantages why this destination can be a model to start implementing sustainable criteria. First, Gjirkastra itself is an UNESCO town, so it has a protected status, whose situation is monitored and reported every year. Other cities and villages offer mountainous landscapes, far from pollution and rich in historical sites. Last but not least, the region has the association with a strategy and vision which is now established to promote this destination and hopefully to manage it.

The main challenge of Gjirokastra toward sustainability is for VGA to expand the membership with all tourism businesses in the region, to have the main hotels and tour operators as members, as well as artisans, farmers. The association may have observers and collaborators from institutions such as RAPA (regional agency for protected areas) or other Directories responsible for preservation of monuments, UNESCO representatives and from other civil society and community. Secondly, getting region-wide data remains a big challenge in terms of the number of tourism businesses, the incomes from tourism, the employment, the situation of transport, the situation of monuments and protected areas, pollution in the region etc. There is an obvious need to gather all the statistics for the region in order to start and set some objectives for destination and for members of association, as well as municipalities.

Throughout the webinar, participants were actively involved and asked concrete questions about the future of association itself and how sustainable principles will be put in practice and embraced by businesses. Raising awareness on importance and long-term benefits of sustainable tourism is an important step to change the mindset and behavior of actors involved in the district of Gjirokastra.

In case you would like to watch the full click here.