The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, said that Albanians are the biggest polluters of parks and tourist spots in the country, not foreign tourists.
In a speech given at an event for the summer tourist season, Rama said that the most beautiful tourist spots also have the largest piles of garbage.
"Tourists not speaking English, Spanish, French, Italian but Albanian, from Albania, from Kosovo, from North Macedonia. Albanians who gather to enjoy the beauties and to enjoy their vacations, stopping at panoramic tourist spots, taking selfies, saying 'oh how good you are, my Albania', and at the same time unloading the garbage from their cars," said Rama, reports A2 CNN.
"And if you look at the panoramic points, if you look at the points where it is possible to stop, they are also the points where there are the largest accumulations of personal waste that is thrown away and I am convinced that the biggest polluters are the biggest screamers of the national stadium, I am convinced that the biggest polluters are those who break the chairs in the stadium and who aim to turn the matches into wars when they happen to be with Serbia or with someone else that they are ready to fight in the stadium. Meanwhile, these are the polluters of Albania when it comes to staying on the beach."
Rama has also criticized the behavior towards tourists, especially in Ksamil.
"A violated beach for Ksamil, and this is the right word for many other beaches. Ksamil can no longer be the prey of the ignorant who see it as a land to be conquered and to treat tourists and visitors as if they were slaves who can eat even the stick of an umbrella over their head, or to set prices to stay in unimaginable densities on the beach, prices that hurt the image of Albanian tourism."
Rama: Ksamil and Dhërmi, entirely public beaches
The beaches of Ksamil and Dhërmi will be completely transferred to the administration of the municipality. The news was announced by the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, at the end of his speech during the activity to establish the milestones of the tourist route for Albania 2030. Considering them as violated beaches, Rama said that the new plan for the coast will be published soon.
"Very soon we will release the entire new plan for the coast and in cooperation with all municipalities, we will understand exactly which beaches the municipalities will take over completely, but two are safe, Ksamil and Dhërmi."
Another problem, according to the prime minister, is the issue of waste, where according to him, the biggest polluters of Albania are Albanians and not foreign tourists.
"Tourists who do not speak English, Spanish, French, Italian but Albanian, from Albania, from Kosovo, from North Macedonia. Albanians who gather to enjoy the beauties and to enjoy their vacations, who stop at panoramic tourist spots, take selfies "oh how good you are, my Albania" and at the same time unload the garbage from their cars. And if you look at the panoramic spots, if you look at the spots where it is possible to stop, they are also the spots where there are the largest accumulations of personal garbage that is thrown away and I am convinced that the biggest polluters are the biggest screamers of the national stadium, I am convinced that the biggest polluters are those who break the chairs in the stadium and who aim to turn the matches into wars when they happen to be with Serbia or with someone else that they are ready to fight in the stadium. Meanwhile, these are the polluters of Albania when it comes to staying on the beach."
Rama said that the Government cannot clean up all municipalities, but will treat waste at the national level.
"Meanwhile, waste treatment, as we have said, is a big problem. The government cannot clean Vlora with all the will and desire of all of us for Vlora to be clean, the municipality must clean it. The government cannot clean the city, but the government will commit to treating the waste of all cities and all municipalities at the national level. Just as we have talked about water supply, and I will not dwell on it."
Another element that the head of government must definitely address is noise. According to him, music in beach bars should be banned outside of beach hours, and their number will be reduced.
"It's the beach bars that are set up not to serve, but to stress the whole world. Entire residential areas where 99% of vacationers are not present in those beach bars, 99.99 have to suffer the rise of music to the sky, so we will stop the music. There will be no more music in the beach bars and we will even make a resizing, also at the request of the mayors, of the number of beach bars and the way in which the beach bars will then be connected to the service as a whole. We were completely surprised. Open a beach bar and from beach bar to beach bar it is like going through the entire history of Rock and Roll with a competitive volume so that Metallica screams here and someone else roars from behind. So this also needs to be seen. Music should be completely banned outside of beach hours and during beach hours the music should be for those who go to the beach bar and not for those who pass by the Fier bypass. And who will make music and who will "Listening to loud music until 5 in the morning should be offered and should be taken to territories in areas where it is not the whole city and it is not the whole municipality that has to hear the echo."
Rama brought to attention the departure of Japanese tourists from Dhërmi due to the music.
"They came to Dhërmi for the first time, I believe according to statistics, and a group of Japanese tourists who left the next day after having booked 10 days, they left the next day terrorized by the music. They simply left. Here is the Gospel that was eagerly awaiting the Japanese, the Japanese left, took the mountains of Albania and settled down high in Theth."
He described Ksamil as a neglected beach due to rising prices and poor service.
"A violated beach for Ksamil, and this is the right word for many other beaches. Ksamil can no longer be the prey of the ignorant who see it as a land to be conquered and to treat tourists and visitors as if they were slaves who can eat even the stick of an umbrella over their head, or to set prices to stay in unimaginable densities on the beach, prices that hurt the image of Albanian tourism."