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Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner plan to transform the island of Sazan into a new mecca for ultra-luxury tourism...
We have a problem with America. Some would say that, especially at this moment in history, there is actually more than one problem. But I work in the travel industry, so I focus on my field. The problem, which I consider serious and, unfortunately, with no solution in sight, is this: American tourism is driving up prices in many cities around the world.
You don't need to be a Cambridge economist to understand why, despite rampant inflation that has eroded their purchasing power in recent years, the wages of Americans, especially those living on the West and East coasts (we're talking tens of millions of people) are significantly higher than the wages earned by those living in the countries Americans visit every year.
This shift leads to an effect known as the “gentrification of tourism”: when tourists from higher-income economies, such as the United States, flock to certain destinations, they are willing to pay higher prices for accommodation, restaurants and services. Local operators therefore raise prices to maximise profits, making the experience inaccessible or less affordable for tourists from lower-middle-income countries and, in many cases, even for the local population.
Over the past 15 years, I've visited 60 countries and I've noticed that Americans are everywhere. However, they prefer certain destinations: Mexico, the Caribbean (Costa Rica is their enclave), Japan, Thailand and many European countries, including England, Spain, France and Italy.
Our country is among the three favorite destinations of the Yankees: the rising cost of living in cities like Milan, Rome and Venice, the latter recently monopolized by Jeff Bezos and his wife, are proof of this. Of course, not all the blame lies with American tourists and their salaries. As always, politics is the main accomplice of overspending.
In the city where I live, Bologna, the caviar left has been at the forefront of a series of decisions that have closed the doors to ordinary citizens and opened them to wealthy investors, whose goal is to make the city more attractive, but only to those who visit and spend on goods and services. To quote the Americans: Talk left, live right.
But let's get back to us. I fear that, in a few years, another destination, geographically very close to Italy, will be destined to end up in the melting pot of over-tourism destinations. I'm talking, for those who haven't understood, about Albania.
Early rumors about Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner’s interest in the island of Sazani in the Gulf of Vlora have finally been confirmed. According to the Guardian, Donald Trump’s daughter and the New Jersey-born real estate developer intend to transform the island into a new mecca for ultra-luxury tourism once the unexploded ordnance is cleared, after Sazani was used as a military garrison during decades of the regime. The investment, estimated at around $1 billion, will add to the couple’s real estate portfolio, which vividly embodies Trumpian neo-Zionist turbo-capitalism.
So, while Leonardo DiCaprio recently purchased the island of Guafo, in Chile, to protect it from mining and deforestation, Sazani is poised to become an exclusive paradise for a few, while Albania as a whole risks becoming another laboratory of gentrification disguised as tourism development.
I said before that politics always bears a large part of the blame. According to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, "Albania needs luxury tourism like a desert needs water." Rama does not know, or pretends not to know, that the flow of capital always brings inflation: in the coming years, Trump's investment will slowly but steadily drive out many residents from the Vlora district, pushed to the margins by an economy that rewards only those who can afford to buy, build or speculate.
According to Monitor magazine, Albania has already seen an average increase in hotel prices of 25-30 percent in 2024. The highest increases were recorded in the south, from Vlora, to Ksamil and Saranda. While in 2023, you could book a hotel in the center of Vlora for 40-50 euros per night, today it is enough to do a search on Booking.com, it is difficult to find anything under 70-90 euros, even for mid-range rooms. And it is not uncommon for prices to exceed 200 euros per night for hotels with a sea view.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that Americans are not the only tourists driving this trend. Germans, for example, have been indirectly responsible for the significant price increases in Croatia over the last 10-15 years: many Italians, our purchasing power is significantly lower than that of Germans, Americans, British and often even our Spanish and French cousins, had no choice but to exclude this country from their list of favorite destinations.
One of the last low-cost destinations near us was Albania. It's time for international tourism to take its course and then, with our meager salaries, we won't even be able to afford holidays with those we considered our poor neighbors. / Adapted Pamphlet from ilfattoquotidiano/
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