Albania to give special status to strategic tourism investors

TIRANA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian or foreign investors who will carry out large investments in the sector of tourism in Albania will be given a special status by Albanian government, minister of tourism and environment Blendi Klosi announced Wednesday.

While presenting the fiscal facilities in the sector of tourism, foreseen in the 2018 fiscal package being discussed in parliamentary committees here, Klosi said that tourism would be considered a key and strategic sector in 2018.

"The special strategic investors' status will be given to those who accomplish investments to tourist priority areas hence where we think tourism must be developed," Klosi said.

According to the draft law, four-star hotels with a minimum investment of 8 million euros (9.3 million U.S. dollars) and five-star hotels with a minimum investment of 15 million euros will benefit from tax exemptions on these investments.

Meanwhile, he said that the amendments on tourism law served to create new spaces to the development of this sector in Albania in order to enable a new elite model of tourism.

Minister Klosi said that 2018 fiscal package via the state budget included fiscal facilities to the strategic investors' special status on construction of four and five stars hotels.

According to him, special status as strategic investors is a package that will make Albania an appealing destination to further investments in tourism development.

The Albanian government decided in mid-November to cut the value added tax for the sector of tourism from the current level of 20 percent to only 6 percent as a way to boost investments in this sector and formalize it.

According to the new fiscal package, special status hotels will benefit from tax exemptions for a period of ten years, while five-star hotels will not pay the infrastructure tax. Enditem