The Ministry of Trade and Industry through a virtual workshop, in cooperation with the representatives of the project Promoting Private Sector Employment (PPSE), funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, has started drafting the Strategy for Tourism Development in Kosovo.
Lumturije Kurtishaj, political advisor to the Minister of Trade and Industry, said that among other things, the development of tourism is a very important factor that affects the improvement of the country's image. According to her, tourism will be treated at a strategic level for the development of the country.
Whereas, Irfan Lipovica, director of the Department for European Integration and Policy Coordination in MTI and a Team leader for drafting the Strategy for tourism development, has considered that participation of municipalities is very important in drafting this strategy. According to him, municipalities are a very important stakeholder in the development of Kosovar tourism. He announced that in drafting this strategy will also contribute the headquarter of Swisscontact in Zurich and that the vision of tourism development will be done with the support and suggestions of Swiss experts.
Meanwhile, Christian Palmer, tourism expert from the Swisscontact organization stressed that an integral part of the strategy will be the issue of changing the perspective on tourism, global tourism trends, the development of demand-based tourism, etc. He presented details of the Swiss model of St. Gallen, where he elaborated important points of tourist destinations, as well as emphasized the good knowledge of tourist behaviour in local and social experiences, digitalization, and different age groups of tourists and specifics of the practice of sustainable tourism. "The tourism development perspective should be based on recognizing visitor flows," said Palmer.
The purpose of this meeting was preparation and coordination of the next steps, which will be taken in the coming days, to adapt them to the global trends of tourism development after the crisis caused worldwide by the COVID-19 pandemic.
