Italians are already turning to Vlora not only for holidays, but also to invest in the hotel sector.

“Italian international tourism” owns 10 hotel units in Italy with a 30-year experience in this field. But the great potential that Vlora has and the close connection of one of the administrators with Albania, has led to the fact that today they also manage two hotels in Vlora.

This venture, thanks to the old origins of Nikola’s father.

“We want to make a further contribution of our strengths in the hotel sector, in which we have been for 30 years. The first is the spirit of hospitality, familiarity, that we must give to the client. Second, a good quality of food and drinks, and third, the professionalism of our staff, from the kitchen, waitresses and cleaning.

A profession that delivers excitement, we actually sell excitement. The place is spectacular, what we want is to excite the customer so that he is satisfied. It’s also a bit of a call of blood, my father is Albanian in origin, we always go back to our origin”, says Nicola Lulgjuraj.

An excellent job has been done for Lulgjuraj in terms of investments, while the airport in Vlora will bring a high flow of tourists, but this also requires the improvement of services to tourists, since everything must revolve around it.

“Very soon Albania will have sustainable tourism, personally I am predisposed to promote Albania throughout Europe. We have contacts with some of the biggest operators in Europe that will help us increase the number of tourists and according to me, in the span of three to four years there will be a big improvement in the hotel sector”, he says.

For the manager Gëzim Dervishi, working with foreigners as managers has benefits for both parties, while the staff still remains a problem.

“The staff, we have completed, but we have deficiencies in the professional part, we need professional people in special sectors, especially in the kitchen, in the service, hall chefs, to be prepared for the hotel industry. We have tried to fulfill them, to some extent we have succeeded, but we still have the opportunity to improve. It will take time for us to understand the culture of tourism, since Vlora has been doing real tourism for 10 years”, says Gëzim Dervishi, manager.

Vlora is now starting the peak of the summer season, where bookings speak of 80 percent bookings of accommodation capacities.