Theth, the famous touristic village in the northern part of Albania, holds a record number of visiting tourists. However, the village suffers from lack of regular electricity supply, a problematic spanning through years.

“This prompted residents to protest ahead of the start of the touristic season. Regardless of their requests to improve the situation, relevant authorities have yet to intervene,” reports Teodor Gjerga, Euronews Albania correspondent in Shkodër.

Each year, guesthouse owners report significant damage to electrical appliances but no one is held responsible.

“Lack of electricity in the year 2023 is ridiculous. God knows about the costs of damaged appliances. Just click on any guesthouse’s website and you’ll see that all negative reviews are due to lack of electricity, waste and infrastructure,” says Pavlin Polija, a guesthouse owner in Theth.

“I’ve lost 2 million Albanian lek only because of damaged appliances,” cries Fatmir Berishta, another guesthouse owner.

“How can you have tourism without electricity? Thethi residents spend millions every year, because we’re forced to throw away appliances that get damaged due to lack of electricity,” says Gjon Gjila who also owns a guesthouse.

A group of tourists from Spain are in Theth since early this morning. They say that the lack of electricity is not at all normal.

“We came here on vacation. We like the place, but we’ve had trouble charging our phones. We couldn’t even contact our families. It’s a shame because it’s a real paradise in here and there is no solution for the lack of electricity or waste,” one of the tourists tells Euronews Albania.

Until authorities intervene to solve the issue and improve the electricity distribution network, Thethi seriously risks the tourist season.