Farm tourism as a new development strategy of agribusiness in Albania

Agriculture is traditionally the key sector dominating the economy in Albania. More than half of the population live in the rural areas, and the agricultural sector has employed over 50 per cent of the total workforce in Albania. From an extreme centralised economy, Albania has moved to a free market economy in the 1990s. Albania has faced many challenges during the transitional period. These challenges include insufficient market experience, obsolete technology and insufficient human resources capacity to participate in the new developments. Also, the lack of appropriate institutional framework, and very low financial resources are barriers to the transition to a lassez faire economy. The search for new business models to improve the living conditions of the general public, especially of the farmers in the rural areas, is intensive and challenging in the context of Albania’s economy. Thus, the objective of this paper is to examine the attitude of farmers in the rural areas towards farm tourism in Albania which is a new opportunity for economic development and sustainability. This paper consists of five main sections, namely (i) an introduction of the background of the issues and the objectives of the study, (ii) a literature review, including the economic development in Albania, and the concept and development of farm tourism in Albania, (iii) the research method and, (iv) a brief discussion of the findings from the interviews, followed by a conclusion. Some recommendations to improve the likelihood of success of farm tourism will also be made in the last section.