IMPACT OF THE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ON POVERTY REDUCTION IN ALBANIA AS A COUNTRY IN TRANSITION

Fighting poverty is a major challenge for Albania, in which tourism can make a significant contribution. However, it is important to analyze the basic concepts behind specific policies and actions that would allow tourism to be effective, like the possibilities offered by micro-credit. In fact, tourism development must be properly managed, avoiding anarchic, speculative development, so that it can be transformed into benefits for the local people and their environment. This paper will list seven areas of action through which tourism development in Albania as a Mediterranean country could fight poverty, with several of them relating to the possibilities created by micro-credit. After analyzing each of these approaches, a methodology must be drawn up for selecting the most effective projects from two points of view – interest for tourism and impact on poverty reduction.