Albania, Europe’s Next Top Holiday Market?
As the summer season in Europe begins to unwind it’s always interesting to reflect on what changes are taking place and how markets have developed not just over this summer but in more recent years post the pandemic disruption of 2020 – 2022. Issues such as perceptions of risk in some parts of Europe certainly impact potential demand with the perceived safer destinations towards in Western Europe always benefitting from a newspaper headline or two. And this year there have certainly been enough headlines for a few fish and chip orders but looking deeper into the numbers, we’re asking ourselves whether Albania might just be Europe’s latest must-see market and is Europe about to have a new competitor for that two-week sun kissed holiday or city break destination?
It’s not an understatement to say Albania has been off the radar for many years, ranking in 33rd place amongst European markets in 2010 but has risen to 26th place this year which represents a ten point move forward on their 2019 position. Not surprisingly the low cost airline segment has driven this huge change in position and market size. Back in 2010, all capacity was operated by legacy carriers while this year low-cost carriers will account for an 80% share of the market.
Emergent markets have always tended to attract the likes of Wizzair and Ryanair more than other LCC’s and this is certainly the case here; Wizzair had the first mover advantage but this year Ryanair now have some 1.2m seats on sale from just over 100,000 seats on sale in 2023. While that’s still around one-third of the amount offered by Wizzair, expect that gap to narrow in the next few years. Not surprisingly Italy is the largest single market accounting for over 3 million seats but both Germany and the United Kingdom are now at more than half a million seats per annum and growing rapidly suggesting a battle of the beach towels may be looming in the coming years.
With just two commercial airports in the country at Tirana and Kukes, there would seem to be plenty of opportunity for new developments to spring up around if market growth continues at the recent levels and that will in turn only add to the competitiveness of the destination. The extent to which Albania can offer a product that rivals close competitors such as Turkey, only time will tell but clearly something exciting is happening and although it’s small scale today, is this your holiday destination for 2027?
-John Grant