Albania’s tourism story is unlike any other. Closed off to the world for decades under the rule of dictator Enver Hoxha, foreign tourists began to slowly trickle in after his death and the fall of communism.

Today, the number of visitors has soared – in 2025, arrivals hit 11.9 million, up 3.3% year-on-year but up 93.6% compared to 2019, according to UN Tourism.

There’s no one single factor that has led to this meteoric rise, although we imagine the sheer number of travel publications referring to the Balkan nation as the “Maldives of Europe” (including Euronews Travel) has had something to do with it.

Here, we take a look into the boom, and…

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