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The last EDP acitvity for the toursim sector was organized on November 3rd 2022, at the premises of Xheko Imperial Hotel. This event was in particular focused on the healthcare tourism, a relatively new industry, for which the participants offered their perspectives on this sector’s potential for the country’s economic development, its current state, and the obstacles that must be overcomed to ensure its continued success, particularly in the fields of dentistry, aesthetics, ophthalmology, and otology, which, in the participants’ opinions, hold the greatest development potential.
Activities and Output
The event kicked off with a presentation detailing the Smart Specialization Strategy, the priority sectors identified during the mapping phase in 2021, the role of the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process in the Republic of Albania, the activities that will be organized as part of the process, and other aspects needed for the participants to acquire a deep understanding of the “Entrepreneurial Discovery Process: Partnership with the Quadruple Helix actors to developing the Smart Specialization Strategy for the Republic of Albania” project’s goals.
In the following session, participants were invited to share their perspectives on the development of the Albanian healthcare tourism industry, as well as to highlight the sector’s most significant difficulties and opportunities. Throughout these discussions, the participants emphasized that despite a number of factors that clearly identify the competitive advantage that Albanians have in this sector, in particular the high quality of healthcare service, the competitive market prices, and the ease of scheduling an appointment, there are a number of factors that could potentially impede the development of this sector, such as a lack of skilled laborers, the persistent growth in healthcare service prices, the dearth of in-depth studies for this sector amongst others.
During the third and final session of the activity, participants engaged in an open discussion to determine the most important government policies needed to support this industry. In particular some of the main aspects discussed were the improve the quality of the healthcare system in Albania, to carefully manage the continued increase in prices, to conduct in depth studies for this sector and develop a proper strategy for tis development , to encourage the formation of agencies that promote the Albanian healthcare industry and coordinate the people that come in the country for this purpose, to revise the existing legal framework etc.
Members of the Panel
Mr. Arben Shkodra: Secretary General of Albania Manufacturing Union (AMU) , Member of the Inter -Institutional Working Group and moderator of the events
Mrs. Matilda Naco: Executive Director of the Albanian Tourism Association (ATA)
Mrs. Mira Rakacolli: Deputy Minister of Health
Event Organizers
This activity was organized by Future Center in collaboration with Inter-Institution Working Group and the Albanian Tourism Association (ATA), with the supported by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) and the POLICY ANSWERS Project (Horizon Europe GA 10105887).