A Bridge To Smart Tourism - From Lezha to Gjakova

CB cooperation in the field of tourism, cultural and natural heritage promotion can bring impact far beyond expectations.

It's not only about rehabilitation and small-scale interventions, but it's also about trying to engage the local community, various stakeholders, promote intercultural dialogue, and thus contribute to the economic growth and sustainable tourism development.

The model will connect travelers with rich cultural and historical heritage - considered as fundamental for further tourism development of Lezha and Gjakova. This intervention has been carefully selected with the purpose of driving innovative tourism while pursuing global leading trends.

Opportunities for cultural and natural heritage tourism, through infrastructural interventions in both countries, including new facilities, upgrading/renovation of existing, and building of new sites.
It will facilitate regions’ exploiting their potential in leading-edge cultural-natural-heritage tourism attractiveness through improving the offer.

Its specific objective is to revitalize cross-border tourism by unveiling and promoting the best of natural and cultural heritage, shaping the path to new tourism destinations, and developing strong cross-border linkages between the countries.

“Medieval Archaeological Museum” supplied with unique, valuable, and authentic art works, cultural objects and artifacts will be totally constructed in the nearby area of the Lezha Castle.
As well as the full reconstruction of the “Museum and Chamber of Crafts” - the missing puzzle of cultural heritage and identity of the city - an object located at originally built in 1945 in Gjakova.

Gjakova with its suburbs is one of the regions with the highest opportunities for economic growth, based on the potential and the available resources for the development of tourism.
The city of Gjakova is known as a cultural center not only at a municipal level but also in the country and the region. Its impressive, undestroyed nature will be very attractive for the expected visitors.

The main products offered include cultural tours, traveling to surrounding areas, and culinary experiences and events mainly in summer.
Lezha and the Northwest region of Albania own numerous resources of cultural and natural geo attraction attracting tourists, which culminates in the summer season due to proximity with Shengjin seaside located only 7 km from the city of Lezha.

In both regions - Lezha and Gjakova - tourism is still underperforming, suffering from a limited offer and under-utilization of natural resources. It holds significant potential for growth in terms of arrivals as well as the length of stay and spending if there are more locally provided diverse tourism offers. The main tourism development challenge at these destinations are the high concentration of tourism traffic and activity often around limited sites - Big Bazaar in Gjakova and Shengjin seaside in Lezha.

Tourism, cultural and natural heritage is valorized as a way to promote the economic development of the area’, because its main focus will be put on tourism development in the CB region.

CB cooperation in the field of tourism, cultural and natural heritage promotion can bring impact far beyond expectations.
It's not only about rehabilitation and small-scale interventions, but it's also about trying to engage the local community, various stakeholders, promote intercultural dialogue, and thus contribute to the economic growth and sustainable tourism development.

The new joint will include four promotional campaigns combined with modern marketing techniques with high consideration of the existing tourism products, reaching out to 50K tourists. Two Promotion and visibility public events were conducted to promote the new tourism products and services in the new tourism sites hosting up to 200 participants. 30 tour operators, travel agencies, and 30 guesthouses/hotels will launch the new joint product to their prospective customers.