“As the tourist centre of Southeast Albania, Korça offers several cultural and natural attractions, not only in the city, but in the whole county. What Korça needs today, in terms of sustainable tourism development, is all about connecting the dots to offer a full package together with the neighbours. Korça´s geographical advantage as a municipality bordering North Macedonia and Greece, creates a lot of opportunities to diversify and extend the touristic packages. That’s why the broader region also has to be considered in terms of this project”
He now covers another role, but his connection with Korça is very strong. Mr Niko Peleshi had a history of success while serving as Mayor, especially in improving the image and increasing the marketing for the city, which made it a destination with more visitors every year. The meeting with Mr. Peleshi had a high importance for the project since he knows Korça very well and in terms of expertise, hence meaningful thoughts and ideas were exchanged. He explained to the international team that the city wasn´t in a good state beginning of the 2000s. It had a weak economy, and there was a decline in jobs where many people, especially youngsters, migrated -mostly to Tirana.
A lot of investments in infrastructure, reconstruction of public places and museums have been made in recent years, hence Korça has nowadays resolved most of the basic problems that are still present in the rest of Albania. Korça, for instance, as the Minister stressed, was the first city in Albania to solve the water supply problem in 2003 and now has the most modern water supply system in Albania. In a short resume, he highlighted that not only the infrastructure, but also the tourism sector developed significantly in the last 15 years. Korça has established itself as the main weekend destination for domestic tourism in Albania (especially for people from Tirana) all year long.
