Cultural ecosystem services and economic development: World Heritage and early efforts at tourism in Albania

Albania actively promotes its World Heritage sites and other attributes of its cultural heritage, including local food and beverages, dance, tapestries and even its communist era, in its marketing efforts. Better information about the emergent tourism sector, particularly with regard to Albania׳s abundant potential in nurturing and capturing the value of its cultural ecosystem services, could help the country to better manage toward its economic development objectives. In this paper, results of a survey of international visitors to Mother Theresa International Airport, highlighting their expenditure patterns, activities, their assessment of their visit with a particular focus on natural and cultural tourism are reported. For example, the average additional willingness to pay to travel to Albania under current experiential conditions is €410. On average, respondents were willing to pay an additional €95 to the Albanian government to invest in Albanian natural and cultural ecosystem services. This potentially translates into an estimated €95 million per year to invest in Albania׳s cultural and natural heritage, or €42 million for culture and €53 million for nature. The results point to the very young stage of tourism development and may illuminate strategies to introduce international audiences to Albania through conferences or other business oriented travel.