TIRANA (Albania), January 25 (SeeNews) – The total number of foreign nationals who visited Albania in 2020 decreased by 58.5% year-on-year to 2.66 million, the country's statistical office, INSTAT, said on Monday.
In December alone, Albania was visited by 180,815 foreign nationals, down 37.4% year-on-year, INSTAT said in a statement.
In 2020, the number of domestic tourists fell by an annual 51.5% to 2.76 million. Overall, the total number of domestic and foreign tourists plunged 55.2% year-on-year to 5.4 million in the year under review.
The largest number of international visitors in 2020 came from Kosovo - 1.4 million, North Macedonia - 370,135, Greece - 203,445, Montenegro - 174,233 and Italy - 123,489.
In 2019, the number of foreign visitors to Albania increased by 8.1% year-on-year to 6.41 million.
Albania confirmed its first two coronavirus cases in early March. Later that month, the country closed its land borders and suspended all commercial flights in an effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
The country has registered a total of 72,274 coronavirus cases, including 1,315 deaths, as of Sunday, health ministry data shows.