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The economic myth, why tourism cannot enrich a country!

2025-09-22 14:54:08Biznes SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Southern Europe and the Mediterranean tourism

In Albania and many other countries in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, tourism is promoted as the heavy industry of modern times, as a powerful engine of economic development.

But Marko Jukic, an economist and prominent analyst at the German agency 'Bismarck analysis', says in a recently published study that believing that tourism alone will bring economic growth and prosperity to a certain country is a dangerous illusion.

'History shows us that no country has become rich from tourism and no country will ever become rich from tourism,' says Jukic.

The economist at 'Bismarck Analysis' bases his belief on observing the income that countries such as Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Portugal and Spain have generated over the years.

'Some of these countries are more dependent on tourism than Dubai is on oil,' declares Jokic, considering this dependence to be wrong.

According to him, if tourism brought about economic development as much as it is advertised to bring, then Greece today would be more developed than Switzerland.

He also cites other countries outside Europe as examples, such as the Maldives, Bali, Jamaica, or Thailand. Jukic says that Monaco and Andorra, two small countries with elite tourism, are exceptions not because tourism has developed them, but because of the special tax system and favorable financial conditions, with low taxes that support their small populations.

Jukic describes mass tourism as a phenomenon that turns nations into incompetent owners and servants. The owners are the ones who benefit the most from mass tourism, while those who work in the services sector receive only their salaries, with job insecurity.

"Tourism is labor-intensive and yields little or no output to the economy. It requires large human resources, but rewards only a small portion of those who engage in this sector," he analyzes.

Jukic believes that by focusing heavily on tourism, many Southern European countries have neglected other sectors of the economy, such as industry and agriculture. He says that a country without a manufacturing economy loses more than it gains from tourism, as the income it generates from visitors is again spent outside that country's economy on imported goods.

To illustrate Marko Jukic's idea, let's take the case of Albania. The government estimates that last year tourists brought 5 billion euros to our country, while the country imported over 1 billion euros in food alone during the same period, and over 9 billion euros in total.

Official data from 2024, when Albania also counted a record number of visitors of over 12 million, show that tourism has not helped reduce the trade deficit, which in this same period worsened by almost 21 percent, reaching 5.2 billion euros.


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