By Albens Tabaku:
Developments driven by “mediocre, one-sided policies” always lead to failure, especially when based on “personal” initiatives without serious studies involving institutes, experts, or academic departments.
From the very beginning, when it was still presented as something new, the idea of developing Korçë mainly and almost exclusively as a tourist city did not seem normal to me. Even before communism, during communism, and for at least 10 years after its fall, Korça had an industrial, commercial, and agricultural character, supported by fertile fields and hardworking villages that created a relatively stable economic chain for the region.
The Beer Factory dates back to 1929, along with manufacturing industries for agricultural products, an alcohol factory, power plants, and transport links to Greece through automobile companies—even air transport. I recall the German company Adria Aero Lloyd, which operated propeller flights Korça–Tirana, Korça–Shkodër, Korça–Vlorë, and return routes as early as 1925. Later, the Italian company Ala Littoria introduced routes such as Korça–Tirana–Rome and Korça–Thessaloniki.
The bazaar was once a center of craftsmanship and essential local trades. The city also had numerous schools, including the French Lyceum (a national institution), two major high schools opened by Mirash Ivanaj, a boys’ vocational school teaching accounting, finance, trade, and merchandising, and a girls’ school focused on crafts, tailoring, and culinary arts.
During communism, Korça was perhaps the most developed district in the Republic, even rivaling Tirana in industrial diversity (although Tirana had larger numbers and heavy industry like the tractor plant). Heavy industry included mechanical and metal plants, foundries, a glass factory, brick and tile factories, a thermal power plant, a bearing factory, and the Instrument Factory—considered number one in the country.
Light industry included food processing plants (jam, oil, chocolate cream, pickles, wine, and cognac), meat processing, woodworking, and more. There was also the highly regarded knitwear combine, which functioned partly until the 2000s before being demolished for apartment buildings. The carpet factory, leather and footwear factory, and many others suffered the same fate. The only survivor is the former garment production enterprise, which still operates successfully today.
Geological enterprises with dozens of mines were destroyed, as was the silicate industry. Agriculture, historically strong, was also neglected.
Therefore, directing Korça’s development almost entirely toward tourism—without alternatives and without utilizing its historical potential—was a mistake. The city is a key border hub with around five customs points, a strategic transport node that should have focused on logistics, storage, and distribution. It also has exceptional agricultural potential in the Korça and Devoll plains, along with a highly skilled workforce that has now largely disappeared.
There were discussions about building an electric cable factory and an automotive company a few years ago, but these plans were abandoned.
Traditional elements like lakror (pie), raki, sausages, and the Beer Festival are now overused and fragmented, unable to provide sustainable long-term development. Domestic tourism has already “consumed” Korça, and population decline across Albania reduces its impact on the regional economy. Unlike coastal cities such as Durrës and Vlorë, which benefit from at least three stable months of tourism, Korça does not even have that advantage.
The situation becomes absurd when even a maternity hospital is turned into a hotel—especially during the peak of a pandemic, when more hospital beds were needed. At the very least, healthcare infrastructure should have been expanded, but it remains unchanged from 50 years ago.
Focusing the economy solely on tourism—whether in Korça or across Albania—makes sustainable and progressive development impossible. Tourism is influenced by many factors and does not quickly recover the high investments it requires. Not to mention the oversaturation of hotels and guesthouses across Korça.
In conclusion, this was a short-term, mediocre, and misguided vision.
