Albanians are increasingly choosing exotic destinations and Thailand is the leading country, with the highest growth for travel in 2018.

Official statistics from the Institute of Statistics, derived from the Family Tourism Survey, "Vacations and Travel", showed that in 2018, the destinations that marked the highest growth of travel compared to 2017, domestically are: Korca (46 , 4%) and Tirana (22.1%), while abroad: Thailand (79.5%) and Dubai (57.1%).

The INSTAT survey conducted by households (households), targeting all individuals residing in Albania over 15 years in 2018, reveals that the number of trips for personal or business purposes (within or outside Albania) of conducted by individuals residing in Albania aged over 15 years was 4,542,794.

â??Personal travel makes up 95.6% of total travel, while business travel makes up 4.4%. On average, in 2018, an individual in Albania made 1.9 trips. The highest concentrations of trips were recorded in the following months: January (12.0%), March (11.2%), June (8.7%), July (8.8%), August (12.1%). %) and December (7.4%). The trips which have as the month of departure November / December 2017 constitute 0.2% of the trips â?estimates INSTAT.

Purpose Travel

â??Distribution of travel by purpose, for the period 2017-2018, follows the same trend as the number of trips. In 2018, 0.7% fewer trips were recorded throughout Albania and abroad compared to 2017, a decrease that was due to the reduction of business trips in Albania. In 2018, trips to Albania for "Holidays and leisure" increased by 7.5 percentage points, followed by "Visits to relatives and friends" by 3.1 percentage points.

Personal travel trips by stay nights

Traveling for personal purposes by stay nights in 2018 increased by 6.1 percentage points compared to 2017. In 2018, the average number of stay nights per trip is 5.2 net. Traveling for personal purposes carried out with a duration of 11-18 nights increased by 11.2 percentage points compared to the same period last year. During 2018, the quarter which has increased for all categories of overnight stays is the second quarter.

Trips by type of accommodation

The most common type of accommodation in both years is "staying with relatives or friends", followed by the category "hotel" and "second homes or holiday apartments" or "rental accommodation". In 2018, there is an increase of 7.0 percentage points for the â??hotelâ? category, and 1.1 percentage points for the â??Holiday home or second apartmentsâ? category. Meanwhile, the biggest decrease was registered for the category "accommodation for rent" by 5.1 percentage points "in the INSTAT survey.

Source: Monitor