| As a
result of the government’s isolationist policies,
Albania had no tourist industry until recently. However,
the country’s Mediterranean coastline and mostly
unspoiled mountainous interior offer great tourist
potential. An estimated 30,000 tourists visited Albania in
1990, an increase of more than 50 percent over 1989; the
number continued to grow in the mid-1990s. The major
tourist destinations include Tiranë, the southern coastal
areas, the northern mountains, and several archaeological
sites. Most tourists are Albanian emigrants from the West
as well as Greeks, Italians, Germans, and other western
Europeans. The country’s one international airport in
Rinas, near Tiranë, was renovated in the mid-1996s.
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Albania (Albanian
Shqiperia, “Country of the Eagle”), republic in southeastern
Europe, officially known as the Republic of Albania. Lying along the
northwestern edge of the Balkan Peninsula, it is bordered by the
Adriatic Sea to the west, Greece to the south, the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to the east, and the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia (FRY) to the north and northeast. The Yugoslav
republic of Montenegro lies to the north while the republic of
Serbia lies to the northeast. Separated from Italy by only 76 km (47
mi) of the Adriatic, Albania, throughout its history, has been
occupied by Italian powers expanding eastward into the Balkans or by
Balkan powers expanding westward. In the 1500s Albania came under
the rule of the Ottoman Empire (centered in what is now Turkey), and
did not gain its independence until 1912. |
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