Kosovo welcomes, but does not invite

Kosovo had less than half a million tourists last year, and the trend has not changed this year either. A number of tourists said they were recommended to visit on social media, and not by any state-organized campaign. Experts see tourism as an opportunity, not only for economic development, but also for eliminating negative prejudices that foreigners have about Kosovo. They are asking institutions to support this industry, as some countries in the region have done.

At the stairs leading to the National Library building, a tourist from China, Shunda Huang, stops with his camera in hand. The 29-year-old from Shanghai, passionate about travel and photography, seeks out the strangest corners of the brutalist building and is particularly impressed by its domes.

Huang says he visited Kosovo after learning about it through the Chinese social network, "Redbook", which serves mainly for publishing photos.

"I travel the world and I'm interested in visiting all the countries in the world. In China we have a social network called 'Redbook' similar to 'Instagram' and some people there recommended this place to me," says Huang.

But apart from the recommendations he has received and suggestions on travel forums, he says that Kosovo does not take up much space in tourist brochures.

"When I searched for Kosovo online, on the Chinese social network 'Redbook', the keywords that appeared were: Clean and friendly."

To enter Kosovo, Huang used a Schengen visa issued by France, as he had previously stayed for a visit to North Macedonia.

"I've already been to Albania and Macedonia last week and I saw that it's much cleaner than I thought when I came here," says the tourist from China.

Besides the cleanliness, Huang says that what he liked most were the monuments and the liveliness in Pristina's squares, especially the people who helped him find his way around the city. 

"I think another thing I've noticed is that people here are very friendly, because I don't have Wi-Fi (I get internet on my phone) or a SIM card, and people help me find attractive places."

Lack of incentives for tour operators

From a social media account to the stairs leading to the National Library, the path of tourism in Kosovo often depends on chance.

Baki Hoti, president of the Tourism Union in Kosovo, is critical of the lack of state planning in the field of tourism.

"Kosovo must prioritize tourism and must invest in tourism, it must invest in infrastructure, it must invest in incentive policies, in policies that facilitate doing business in the tourism industry," says Hoti.

He says that visits made by tourists from distant countries are usually part of wider Balkan tours and rarely have a destination other than Kosovo.

He qualifies this as a positive step for the country's representation, but says that Kosovo is still far from being a destination in its own right.

"So, a group from Asian countries does not come to visit only Kosovo. But they come to visit the Balkans, where these visits are somewhere between ten and twelve days. And we have managed to include Kosovo in these Balkan and European packages, where Kosovo is now also included and visitors stay for two to three days and this is a very positive result."

However, inclusion in regional tourism packages remains more of a partially exploited opportunity than a planned success.

According to Hoti, structural problems keep Kosovo away from real competition with neighboring countries, especially when it comes to fiscal policies and institutional support for the tourism industry.

"We have been requesting for years the reduction of VAT for the accommodation part, which is eighteen percent, with that 18 percent standard for accommodation, all other countries have the lowest VAT for accommodation in relation to the standard VAT. All of them. And Kosovo has the same, and this affects the tourist package then, because of that we have an extremely high price for accommodation", emphasizes Baki Hoti - president of the Tourism Union.

According to him, the lack of incentives for tourism operators that bring visitors from abroad, as well as clear policies to make Kosovo more accessible through air transport, are also problematic.

"The other issue is the subsidization of tour operators that bring tourists to Kosovo, as for example the model of North Macedonia has, where for every tourist that a tourist agency brings to Macedonia, from the second night, the state receives fourteen euros. Kosovo does not have that. Then, we have asked the institutions to look into the possibility of starting discussions with airlines, which are operating at cheap prices, to land at the 'Adem Jashari' airport. Look at what Albania and North Macedonia are doing, a considerable number of Kosovo citizens are not using the 'Adem Jashari' airport, they are using the Skopje or Tirana airport, because of the cheaper prices."

Tourist identity

Although today Kosovo is trying to create a tourist identity in competition with countries in the region, efforts to build a hospitality industry are not new.

Professor Zekë Çeku, who was director of the "Grand" hotel before and after the war, recalls that during the 70s, when Kosovo was part of the former Yugoslavia, the first serious efforts were made to create tourist infrastructure.

At that time, several hotels with high standards for the time were built, such as "Grandi" in Pristina and "Narcisi" in Brezovica, and initial capacities for winter tourism were developed.

But he says that, at that time, visitors were mainly from other Yugoslav states and the traffic was more regional than international.

"It was mainly circulation within the former Yugoslavia, but for some issues, for example winter tourism, Kosovo was quite developed with the capacity building in Brezovica, there was one of the best hotels in this southern part of Yugoslavia, in Brezovica, the 'Narcis' hotel, for example, then winter tourism was also developed, cultural tourism was also developed a lot, mainly visits to these monasteries, urban tourism that is called, urban tourism is fading away like visits to cities: Pristina, Prizren, Peja were also quite visited at that time and that means these were mainly manifest tourism within the framework of the former Yugoslavia", says Çeku. 

Based on official data from the Statistics Agency, during March of this year, 25 foreign tourists visited Kosovo, who spent a total of 173 nights. In February, the figures were higher: 50 visitors and 867 nights. For 27, KAS recorded 769 visitors and 55 nights in total.

But this data does not always match the experience on the ground.

According to Professor Çeku, there is a gap between the reality seen by tourism stakeholders and what is reported by institutions.

The same position is expressed by the president of the Tourism Union, Hoti, who questions the accuracy of the measurement methodology and reporting sources.

However, Çeku emphasizes that the role of tourism in the economy is indisputable and has a chain effect on many sectors.

"Tourism has that multifunctional, multi-valued function, because with tourism many other economic sectors benefit, construction, the food industry, road infrastructure, municipal infrastructure, all of these trade benefits from tourism, all of these are branches of the economy, which directly benefit from tourism."

Prejudices about Kosovo

Beyond statistical data, another challenge for tourism is visitors' perception of Kosovo, which is often shaped by inaccurate, politically influenced, or prejudiced sources.

According to Çeku, large international platforms like Google often provide information dominated by the narrative of neighboring countries, especially Serbia.

In the absence of official content created by Kosovar institutions, he says that many visitors' first experience is built on fear.

"People who come are probably very reluctant to come to Kosovo, because in more information, Google or I don't know, other platforms that are more popular in the world, there is more disinformation from Serbia than valuable information that our Academy of Sciences, any university or ministry provides. That's where the gap is, that's where the biggest defect is. Can you believe it, ninety-five percent of visitors who come to Kosovo for the first time come to Kosovo with skepticism, because they have read there that  "They delay you, they steal from you, they mistreat you, they abuse you, you can be poisoned, do you believe all of this, none of it is accurate."

And despite initial skepticism, the experience in Kosovo for most visitors turns out to be completely different.

According to representatives of the tourism sector, what changes belief is not a promotional campaign, but direct contact with people.

"It is very interesting that most visitors who come to Kosovo, especially for the first time, come with an impression that they are afraid, that they think that security is not good, that they think that we are arrogant people, that they think that okay, let's go see it - but they don't expect much. While they return with a completely opposite impression. For the hospitality that we as Kosovo, as Albanians have - which I don't believe any other people have - a warm and friendly hospitality, for the traditional food that we have, for the cheap prices that we have compared to the countries of the European Union and for the beautiful places of nature and cultural heritage that we have", says Baki Hoti, president of the Tourism Union.

And for Zekë Çeku, the human factor is the most important element that keeps tourism alive in Kosovo.

"Fortunately, our people are the greatest value that Kosovo tourism has. I'm saying maybe not very professionally educated, but we have that tradition, a traditional hospitality. Open-minded, our people are very open-minded and helpful, for example, cafes, other restaurants welcome them well, serve them well, they talk to you for example, some information on the street you can't find anywhere else in the world, the person on our streets of Pristina today, of Kosovo, is able to go a kilometer, to show something", announced tourism expert, Zekë Çeku.

Childhood memories of Mother Teresa

In the summer of 2024, Kosovo adopted the Tourism Strategy 2024–2030, a document that envisions the construction of infrastructure for sustainable tourism, bicycle paths, standardization of services, and international promotion of the country as a destination. However, more than a year after its adoption, it is not clear what has been achieved.

Since Monday, KOHA has addressed the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade with specific questions about whether the objectives for 2024 and the first months of 2025 have been met, how many euros have been invested from the amount foreseen in the strategy, and whether things are progressing according to the action plan? But so far, it has not received an answer to any of these questions.

Despite the institutional silence, tourists continue to frequent Kosovo, driven more by curiosity and chance than by any official promotion.

In the center of Pristina, near the "Mother Teresa" Cathedral, Eva Langir from Poland is making the next stop as part of her trip to Kosovo.

"Beautiful nature, we were in the mountains in Peja, now we are here in Pristina, then we will stop in Prizren and so far we are liking it," says Langir.

A few meters away from her, Ben Sen from Taiwan had a more personal reason why he experienced his visit to the Pristina Cathedral differently.

"I like the story of Mother Teresa, because I am also a Christian, a Catholic. When I entered the 'Mother Teresa' church, memories of my childhood came to me, when I read about Mother Teresa," says Taiwanese Sen.

They, like Shunda Huang from China, did not visit Kosovo because of any state campaign.

They were lured into embarking on this journey by apps, forums, photographs, or case stories.

And upon returning to their countries of origin, they say they will take with them completely different impressions than those that initially brought them to Kosovo.

From the National Library to the guesthouses in Brezovica, Kosovo remains a place where hospitality often fills institutional gaps.

Somewhere in Shanghai, perhaps a photograph of the National Library of Pristina will appear, uploaded by Shunda Huang to Redbook and accompanied by a description that was not written with state planning in mind, but which turns out to be worth more than any unrealized plan.