Albanian Tourism Research Articles

A Structural Model for Examining how Service Quality, Trust, Perceived Value, Customer Expectations Affect Customer Loyalty: A Case Study of 3- and 4-Stars Hotels in Durres, Albania

In the nowadays society, the tourism industry is rapidly expanding and becoming a global powerhouse. This study aims to determine the impact of service quality on trust, perceived value, and customer expectations within tourism sector, and its significant implications for customer loyalty. The primary objective is to investigate the relationships among these critical factors and their combined effect on customer loyalty. The focus is on the Albanian tourism industry, particularly on 3- and 4-star hotels in the city of Durres. Statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, internal consistency, reliability, validity, correlation, and regression tests, were conducted to establish the relationships and validate the study. The survey was administered to 550 tourists who stayed in various 3- and 4-star hotels in Durres from May to July 2024. The study found positive relationships between service quality and trust, service quality and perceived value, and service quality and customer expectations. These variables are identified as precursors to customer loyalty. Received: 2 June 2024 / Accepted: 25 July 2024 / Published: 29 July 2024

Mathematical Model Applied for Hotel Recommendation System with Machine Learning

Abstract: the purpose of this paper is to promote the value of Albanian tourism creating a Hotel Recommendation System applying a Mathematical Model. The data of one hundred and one hotels, loaded from two excel files in CSV format are implemented in the Spyder IDE and processed by code, using Mathematical and Machine Learning knowledge. The code recommends ten best hotels as output. There is made a combination of Machine Learning methods and techniques with the concepts of probability, statistics, algebra and geometry. The main methodological approach taken in this study is Content-Based Filtering.

The Impact of Digital Marketing on the Development of Tourism in Republic of Albania

The tremendous growth of tourism in Albania in recent decades, made important the understanding of the role that digital marketing and mobile technology is playing in this field. Tourism in Albania is one of the most important economic sectors of the country, and is growing year after year. It is emphasized that digitalization is a new form of communication between producers and consumers of tourism services, becoming a source of competitive advantages for tourism organizations. The main goal of the study is to give us a clear overview of the use of the Internet, information technologies and digital marketing in Albania. For the realization of this study, we used a methodology that combines primary data with secondary ones. The research was conducted through questionnaires that were sent to Albanian travel agencies via email. The questionnaire contains 17 questions, and was sent to 150 travel agencies, of which 102 agencies responded. Regarding the study, digital marketing plays an important role in improving the image of Albanian tourism throughout the world. It has created facilities in the way of doing marketing and reducing the costs of businesses. Through digital marketing, travel agencies have managed to promote our country online, personalize services and, above all, be closer to customers. The research found that the most effective digital marketing tools used by the agencies are Instagram and Facebook.

APPLICABILITY OF ANTI-COVID-19 MEASURES AND THEIR IMPACT UPON THE PERCEPTIONS ON THE SAFETY AND IMAGE OF THE STRUCTURE OF TOURISM CASE STUDY; ALBANIA

At present, Albania lacks original studies that examine the role of safety and security as an important factor in the competitiveness of a tourist destination. In order to fill this gap, the article aims to measure the perception level regarding the recognition of the Safety and Security pillar and its standards, to assess the role of the image of Albania as a significant component in tourism development and to analyse the relationship of the image of Albania to security and performance of the state institutions. The methodology used combines information collected from interviews of the actors contributing to the Albanian tourism sector with the related official documentation and literature reviews. The paper supports application of the factor analysis method regarding perception of the actors and interest groups involved in the tourism sector. The findings indicate that the Safety and Security pillar standards are not familiar to the actors contributing to the sector of tourism in Albania. The main performance components in the tourism sector are the security and performance of the state institutions.

The Impact of COVID–19 on Albanian Tourism

Objectives: Nowadays, tourism continues to represent the most dynamic and open part of the countries’ economic system. This research paper explores tourism in Albania over the years, with particular focus on the development of tourism during the pandemic situation, mainly the number of entrances and exits of visitors to the country compared to the years before. Methods/Analysis: This study will take into consideration the secondary data provided by the World Travel and Tourism Council and INSTAT Albania focused on 2020 as the pandemic year, compared to the previous years by investigating the movements of visitors in Albania, their origins, and the ways of travel through seaports, air, or land. The travel purposes of Albanian visitors are different, but this research will focus only on those purposes for holidays during the summer season. The data will be presented through the percentage of a frequency distribution at each entrance and exit point, in some cases explained by tables and graphs, comparing the months in the peak summertime. Findings: Statistical analyses represented in this research give a clear picture of developing tourism in Albania during the pandemic year, mostly tourists from Kosovo. Improvement: This research paper summarized some specific recommendations to the government institutions and SMEs specializing in the tourism sector to be ready for the future challenge, even deep dives in the pandemic zone.JEL Classification:N 20, N3 E24, P23 J5 Doi: 10.28991/esj-2022-SPER-03 Full Text: PDF

Mathematical Modeling of Tourism Development. An Application to Albanian Tourism

The article contains a comprehensive study of tourist arrivals in Albania in the years 1994 to 2020. During this period, the trend of tourism development has been studied, using the widely approved concept of Tourist Area Cycle Theory (TALC). During these years, the number of tourists has been growing rapidly, and, the touristic sites of Albania have been transformed to serve touristic purposes, especially the coastline. Recently the geographic touristic map has been enlarged to the mountain and rural areas, touristic villages, and cultural, archaeological, historical tourism. The dynamics of tourism development have been studied by many researchers, academics, and institutions to provide a complete and clear picture of the history and predict the future of the tourism industry. Econometric, mathematical or mixed models are applied to fit the tourism development and they have been helpful and have served the purpose. The model we have used to analyze the arrivals in Albania is the Logistical and the Gompertz model, largely used to estimate growth under limited resources. The tourist arrivals, i.e., the number of tourists entering the destination country have been considered as the most important variable to describe the tourism development. Several useful software is mostly used to fit the historical data and predict future arrivals such as Stata, Lab fit, Curve Expert, Spss, etc. In our case the Stata software to run the data provided for this article. The data for this article are provided from INSTAT (National Institute of Statistics), (http://www.instat.gov.al/) and other National Institutions such as the Ministry of Tourism and Environment of Albania, (https://turizmi.gov.al/), and several International Institutional such as the World Bank, (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL?locations=AL), World Tourism Organization, (https://www.unwto.org/statistic/basic-tourism-statistics). The data, together with the growing numbers of tourists show the significant impact of tourism on the economic development of the country, income, contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment, etc.

The Potential of Albanian Tourism Sector

The aim is to develop a profile of Albania’s hotels based on a critical analysis of the attitude of foreign tourists visiting the country. COVID-19 negatively affected the Albanian tourism sector because 2,657,818 foreign citizens visited Albania in 2020, which is 41.49% less than in 2019. To investigate the potential of Albanian tourists, this study employs a quantitative analysis and a Regression Model. The results demonstrate that the tourist is a rational decision-maker and our findings indicate that there are differences in expectations and perceptions among respondents. These differences are not significantly correlated with the respondents’ gender, but in terms of education level, the differences are significant for empathy, where the respondents with a college degree have a higher level of expectations than respondents that have higher education. Our findings highlight the practical implications of research for managers of hotels because they have to take into account that tourists are very sensitive to the level of understanding of their specific needs by hotel staff. Recently, more than before pandemic COVID-19, the relationship between expectations and perceptions of tourists visiting Albania is strongly influenced by tangible elements of the touristic package.

Skill-enhancing human resource practices and firm performance: the mediating role of innovativeness

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the interplay of skill-enhancing human resources (HR) practices, innovativeness and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach Data from 211 valid cases were gathered through an online survey and face-to-face interviews with Albanian tourism firms. Structural equation modeling was implemented to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The results suggest that HR training has a positive influence on innovativeness, which in turn affects positively firm performance. Thus, there is a mediation effect of innovativeness in the link between training and performance. Research limitations/implications The findings are in line with the strategic perspective on HR management, which suggests that HR practices are likely to indirectly affect firm performance. However, results should be interpreted with caution due to the cross-sectional nature of the data. Practical implications HR training practices may help tourism firms to increase their innovation orientation and ultimately improve their performance outcomes. Originality/value Investigating the mediation role of innovativeness on the relationship between skill-enhancing HR practices and firm performance within the tourism context is the core contribution.

Effects of ICT in Albanian Tourism Business

The digitalisation in the manufacturing and industrial sectors has been fast ‘exported’ in tourism industry as well. The technological revolution has highly affected both the supplier and the consumer of tourism products and services. There is recently an increasing attention from the industry and academia in order to highlight the challenges of ICT use in tourism and the drivers of “smart tourism” in world level. Our study joins these efforts with the goal to observe the use of information and communication technologies in Albanian tourism and detect the elements of smart tourism in it. The survey and interviews with a sample of experienced medium size tourism companies were used to assess the expansion of ICT in their overall activity. The data collected and processed did enable to point out the penetration of digital technologies in Albanian tourism. Further on, some features of smart tourism are highlighted and some drivers of digitalization in Albanian tourism are brought to the attention of stakeholder groups.

The interplay effects of skill-enhancing human resources practices, customer orientation and tourism SMEs performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay of skill-enhancing human resources practices, customer orientation (CO) and tourism small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance indicators.Design/methodology/approachData for 194 valid cases are gathered through face-to-face techniques in Albanian tourism SMEs. Structural equation modeling is implemented to analyze data and test the hypothesis proposed.FindingsOverall, both skill-enhancing human resources (HR) practices (i.e. recruitment/selection and training) are not associated with SMEs performance. Results suggest that using HR selection/recruitment practices are not associated to SME’s CO. Contrary, implementing skill-enhancing HR training practices is significant for SMEs strategy to focus and address customers’ wants and needs. Finally, it was found that the CO mediates the relationship between skill-enhancing HR training practices and performance, but this was not true on the skill-enhancing HR recruitment/selection practices-performance relationship.Originality/valueThis study makes contributions by further informing the debate about the direct and indirect link between skill-enhancing HR practices and performance. Additionally, it examines the precise role of the skill-enhancing HR practice on SMEs’ culture and or strategy to create value for customers.

Customer orientation and SME performance in Albania: A case study of the mediating role of innovativeness and innovation behavior

Although the tourism industry in Albania has had an impressive growth in the last years, it is currently facing several challenges. This study examines the determinants of Albanian tourism small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) performance. More specifically, the direct effects of customer orientation (CO) on performance and its indirect effects mediated by innovativeness and innovation behavior are investigated. Quantitative data from a survey conducted on 211 Albanian tourism SMEs, together with qualitative information gathered from personal interviews, are considered. Results indicate that CO has a direct positive impact not only on performance but also on both innovativeness and innovation behavior. However, none of these two dimensions of innovation play a mediating role in the relationship between CO and performance. Implications from these findings are discussed.

Smart Tirana

Albania represents an interesting case of a newly emerging destination in the international tourist market, with intensive pressures coming from seasonal visit flows and the related impacts on the environment. The Albanian Culture Marketing Strategy, while correctly focusing on heritage for the de-seasoning of visits in congested areas and for awareness-raising about the country’s cultural identity among tourists and residents, presents some limitations in the definition of application patterns and concrete solutions. In particular, the active contribution of potential users, of ICTs and, in particular, the potentialities of widespread tools such as mobile apps seem to be overlooked. In this article, the current scenario of the Albanian tourism sector, with particular emphasis on the cultural segment, is presented through a detailed analysis of relevant program documents in order to outline strengths and weaknesses of the underlying approach. Then, the potential contribution of mobile apps to the sustainable development of destinations are analyzed and the market of available technologies is presented through a taxonomy of a consistent number of representative cases. Finally, the SOS-Tirana app is presented and its adequateness to the context is discussed.

Developing Albanian Tourism

This paper examines the development pattern of Albania’s tourism and the effect that this industry will have in the country’s economic development. I will attempt to demonstrate that tourism is an indispensable industry in the developing countries like Albania furthermore if it develops through a precise strategy with the government and other institutional support it can contribute to the development of the country. Firstly I will give a general overview of this industry and its capabilities which are relevant in understanding Albania’s tourism and its actual situation. In the second part I will describe the strategy that will be implemented by the Albanian government in the tourism sector until 2021 and analyze its overall contribution to this industry. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n3s1p279

The Relevance Of Different Aspects Of Sustainability For The Albanian Tourism Hotels

This study is focused on albanian tourism hotels and their orientation towards sustainability. Personal interests of accommodation units owners have made the current development of tourism chaotic and unsustainable. A hotel sustainability business model that was introduced first in Slovenia will be used to investigate the relevance that albanian tourism hotels put to the sustainability dimensions. The aim is to highlight which of three aspects is neglected and takes less attention than others. How important are the different aspects of sustainability (indicators) for albanian hotel owners and managers? Did they measure and monitor these indicators. The main findings stresses that they do not pay the same attention and importance to all aspects of sustainability.

Tourism development post global financial crisis: Case of Albania

Tourism is the elastic sector and capable of demonstrating the significant capacity past the crisis occurrence despite it is more appreciable in the short run. The global financial crisis during 2008 – 2009 passed likewise the adverse external shock to developing countries and we faced to the consequences of it. It had the significant impact on the tourism sector. Empirical results demonstrated that tourist revenues tend to be more affected than cash tourist during the time of crisis. Impact of the crisis on the tourism sector associated with the different effects in diverse countries. The crisis around the world brought to Albania the highest number of tourists, but tourism receipts per tourist were lower compared to other years. The goal of this paper is to analyze the impacts of post global economic crisis on the tourism sector according to Albania and around the diverse world regions. The paper investigated the indicators of tourism sector linking to Albania and global regions through the comparative static and dynamic analysis during 2009 – 2014. We concluded that the impact of crisis in the tourism sector and its renovation were altering to dissimilar countries. The global tourism renovated during 2012, meanwhile the Albanian tourism sector was renovating during 2014.

Innovations and Online Marketing Services Trends in Albanian Tourism Sector

Albania is a rich country with a lot of nature and cultural tourism resources situated in the in the Balkans region where there are much opportunities for developing different types of tourism. After a long period of transition, since the fall of the communist regime in 1990, the tourism industry began to be considered as one of the economic sectors with potential for development in the future. But, tourism enterprises had to be faced with a high competition from other countries in the region and a lack of experience in the field of tourism services. This study aims to identify the attitudes of senior management of tourism enterprises (Accommodation units, Travel Agencies and Restaurants) on the adoption of new services on the Internet, the use of ICT to sell the services offered and how much they were aware of the benefits that online marketing brought using their websites etc. To realize the aim, are raised the research questions and hypotheses. The research instrument used was a questionnaire. The sample consisted of N = 208 participants, representatives of tourism enterprises at five districts of Albania, respectively: Tirana, Durres, Shkodra, Vlore and Saranda .The results show that the entrepreneurs/managers make a very good job for the creation of new services via the Internet, also they support significantly the use of ICT-s to sell their services, they were aware of the benefits that brought a website to the marketing of tourism services and there was a great interest to learn more about the internet.

E- commerce as an Added Value in the Tourism Services in Albania

The tourism services in Albania, provided by the private sector, started after the 1990’s, when the transition period in the country begun after 50 years in a centralized political and economical system. During this period the sector was faced with lack of experience in terms of providing tourism services, with poor infrastructure, lack of legislation, the bad conditions of hotels and other services required by tourists etc. One of the key elements that is needed for the marketing process is the use of information and communications technology, and e-commerce, which in the tourism sector are very useful and needed. The aim of this study is to identify how usable is the electronic commerce in Albanian tourism enterprises and how it affects the online tourism marketing .The study is descriptive, as well as explanatory. The research instrument used was a questionnaire. The sample consisted of N = 208 participants, representatives of three types of tourism enterprises (accommodation units, travel agencies and restaurants). The study was based on five districts of Albania, where tourism is more developed, respectively: Tirana, Durres, Shkodra, Vlore and Sarande. The results show that in most of enterprises the web site offers the possibility of making online bookings, but not online payments. Also from the research was found that electronic commerce has a positive relation with online marketing. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n1p329

Geospatial Technology a Solution on Communication Development Case Study: Tourism Management in Albania

Albanian tourism industry recent years has consistently increased and has gained a growing share in the country's GDP. The paper outlines the great potentiality Albanian market can benefit from a well management process of the tourism sector exploiting contemporary technology. GIS technology has gained an undisputed role as the backbone of modern tourism development. Based on the close relation tourism has toward the mapping process we will focus our presentation into the most critical issues the Albanian tourism sector suffers from, communication and information toward both sides visitors and potential sponsors, and how GIS offers the right tools for any analytical or visual aspect. The aim of this paper is to present a group of indexed mapping areas showing the most potential zones for tourism development in Albania working as a mirror to redirect future investments, also increase reliability and effectiveness toward data and terrain decision-making.

Tourism enterprises in Korca region and their sustainability

Tourism is considered as one of the economic sectors with the greatest potential to make a positive contribution in achieving sustainable development (UNCED, 1992) .Sustainable tourism has become an increasingly popular field of research. There are a wide range of albanian tourism enterprises involved in the tourism industry.The informal nature of tourism enterprises can make it very difficult to spread awareness on sustainable policies, practices and to measure moves towards more sustainable performance. This paper addresses the concept of sustainable development in tourism and examines the degree to which tourism enterprises in Korca region are aware of the broad concept of sustainable tourism.The aim is to determine attitudes of tourism enterprises toward sustainability and understanding the influences on the adoption of sustainability practices, including motivators and barriers .The main findings stresses “a lack of a general awareness about sustainability issues within albanian tourism enterprises. Also as dominant barriers identified were lack of available money to invest, other business priorities,lack of incentive programs. A better understanding of tourism enterprise attributes, barriers, and responses is critical if we are to extend the theoretical concepts that underpin sustainable tourism development and to enhance sustainability in practice. Keywords: sustainability ,albanian tourism enterprises,sustainable tourism practices,motivators,barriers.

The Effect of Consumer Relationship Management on Satisfaction and Loyalty: A Focus on Albanian Tour Operator Business

This paper examines the influence of Customer Relationship Management on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the Albanian Tourism Industry. Despite the fact that CRM positive influence on customer satisfaction is widely accepted as a rule of thumb, very little research has been done to further investigate on such a theory. Hence, the study tries to find out if an effective Customer Relationship Management strategy indeed influences customer satisfaction and loyalty. The empirical research attempts to unveil the relationship between Customer Relationship Management Effectiveness, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty by analyzing five CRM attributes, namely; Organizational commitment, Customer experience, Process-driven approach, Reliability and Technology Orientation. Results show that not all CRM features influence or equally influence customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, it proves that customer satisfaction is indeed a strong mediator of customer loyalty. Based on the results of the study, only organizational commitment, customer experience, process-driven approach and reliability influence customer satisfaction while only reliability positively influences customer loyalty. The hypotheses are tested using information collected from customers through structural equation model approach. The empirical results of this study have academic and managerial implications since they add to the existing body of knowledge and at the same time help CRM managers in the decision making process. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s1p635