6
that a ferry operator should consider when starting a new passenger and vehicle shipping
activity will be discussed.
Some conclusions will be given at the end of this work. The main idea is that
passenger shipping in Albania has a very good future. This conclusion is based on the
growing demand of the domestic users as well as from the position of the Durres port as a
transiting point for the FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia), Kosovo and
even more distant traffic.
Differently from the practice in other countries, passenger shipping in Albania,
due to the enormous growth in a very short time, has created its way by itself, not
allowing much time for the necessary support and control by the responsible decision
making authorities. Now, the time is ripe to discuss implementing a major government
planning and preparation framework of the transport strategy in Albania, whereby the
transport by ferries should have a respectable place. Although the main financial burden
of this operation has to remain with the operators, the state should provide �some degree
of built-in stability for the economy� (Maddison, p.78). The driving force on this system
has to be generated mainly from the direct economically interested parties, i.e. the
investors in passenger shipping field. Their proposals have to create the basis of
government planning and intervention, to happen where and when appropriate.
Therefore, this work will be concluded with some recommendations in this respect.
7
I.2. HISTORICAL VIEW
It is widely known that the movement of people by vessel has been the only
alternative to cross the waters, until the air transport made its debut at the beginning of
20
th
century and became economical at the 1960-s. However, the massive transport of
passengers by sea, a quite normal and economical way of travelling, is a novelty for
Albania, despite the favorable geographical conditions.
The first entries of the passenger sea travel in Albania were registered after the
First World War, mostly in the form of merchants going to Italy and back for their trade.
As the normal development of the trade has dictated elsewhere in the world, this small
activity was the first step towards a major concentration of wealth and, in a few years
time, quite a few Albanian-owned vessels were trading between two coasts. This activity
continued for the period between wars, to be temporarily suspended (or adjusted to the
war-related necessities) in 1940-1944.
After that, in the new communist Albania, the period up to the �80-s was a most
unfortunate one for the passenger shipping in and out Albania. No passenger line was
established, no movements of passengers by sea were registered and no such type of
traffic existed.
In the composition of the Albanian National Fleet, (which used to include the
entire seagoing inventory, because Albania had a state-owned economy, as a communist
country) the passenger and ferry vessels were missing during these years. Due to a
severe auto-isolation, the working and social exchange of people with the world abroad
was extremely limited. Only 1-2 daily departures by air were enough to cover all the
flow of passengers from and to Albania. There was no hope for foreign capital injection
either; what was politically forbidden for the nationals, was economically prohibitive
even for foreign shipping lines active in the region; the number of passengers to and from
Albania was negligible.
8
In the next section will be explained more in detail the background of this strange
situation. For the moment it is enough to state that this explains why for most Europeans
Albania remained a mystery; surrounded by the widely recognized attractive tourist
destinations (Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia), this country was a �black hole� between them
for many years.
I.3. GEOPOLITICAL PARAMETERS
The Republic of Albania lies in southern Europe between 19
o
16�- 21
o
40�
longitude and 39
o
38� - 42
o
39� latitude, bordering Adriatic and Ionian Seas with a
coastline of 472 kilometers. (Berxholi & Qiriazi, 1986, p.17) Its population is of about 3.15
million inhabitants in an area of 28,748 square kilometers. (CALENDARIO 2002, p.181)
Bordering states are on the north-northeast the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on the
east FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia). Greece lies on the southeast
and south while the remaining part is a southwest and west access to the Ionian Sea and
the Adriatic Sea (both of them part of Mediterranean).
Figure 1: ALBANIA Figure 2: ALBANIA IN EUROPE
k
The coast is mainly divided into two different types: the Adriatic Coast on the
west is flat and the sea has shallow waters and sandy beaches. This picture changes in
9
the south (from the port of Vlora and downward) where starts the high Ionian coastline,
composed by hills and mountains, sharply falling into the deep, clean waters.
The main port of Albania is located in Durres (19
o
27� E, 41
o
19� N). This port
accounts for as much as 70 - 80 % of cargo and passenger traffic, leaving the remaining
volume to other ports, mainly of a local importance.
The city of Durres is located in the center of Albania, only 35 kilometers far from
Tirana, which is the capital city. It is the second biggest city of Albania by population
and economic development. It also has good connections (for Albanian standards) of
roads and railways with the other parts of the country. This city constitutes the main
center of the western part of Albania, which is the most developed one, compared with
the rest of country. This explains the important fact why Durres has always been the
major commercial port, taking more than 3/4 of the total amount of cargo and now having
an even bigger share of passenger traffic.
The deserved importance is given to this port under the most recent projects of
Albanian government. The deputy Minister of Transport states in a recent interview, �I
would like to stress the importance of Durres port in the influx of the whole
Regional artery. The Durres port project aims to improve its efficiency and
capacity, in order to accommodate the anticipated increase of the traffic as well as
to absorb the transit traffic�. (�KOHA JONE�, 8 April 2001).
The other points of passenger traffic are the cities Vlora and Saranda in the
southern part of Albania, but their activities will not be dealt with in this work. In those
ports can be mainly found transport with small passenger crafts. Vlora has connections
with Bari and Brindisi on the Italian Adriatic coast, whereas from Saranda the most
frequent rotes are with Corfu and some other ports in northern Greece.
It can be however said that, in a local context, both these ports have some special
features for the development of the passenger traffic. Vlora is the main city in southern
Albania, therefore a natural embarkation point for that part. Saranda, on the other hand,
10
can constitute a bright future as a small-sized tourist port, presenting some very
interesting archaeological attractions and being located only 10 miles from Corfu, the
Greek Island known as tourist destination.
In order to have a clear picture of the role of the Adriatic Sea for the general
transport arrangement of Albania it is necessary to give some explanations about the
geopolitical factors that determine it.
As was noted by the map in page 10 above, the immediate neighbors of Albania
are Yugoslavia and Greece by land and Italy by sea. (It goes without saying that Greece
and Yugoslavia can be reached via sea, too.) Further on, the next countries with potential
for foreign exchange with Albania are located from east to north (Turkey, Bulgaria,
Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, France), because in the other directions
lies the Mediterranean Sea.
Therefore, the sea transport is widely utilized to carry out all the transport
to/from Italy as well as a part of the transport with the other two neighboring countries.
For the east-northeast destination, the shortest way of transport is by land. However, the
composition of the Balkan Peninsula, oriented northwest-southeast having some big
mountain chains all the way long, makes it difficult. Added to this is the difficulty of
passing through various borders and Customs regimes, in territories quite recently
involved in national wars, therefore not the best environment for transport by road.
Therefore, vessels do carry out a part of the transport with Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania
going south and then east (Ionian, Aegean and Black Seas).
For the north-northwest destinations instead, the most economical and natural
way is the sea transport and then the delivery in the ports of the North Adriatic, covering
a distance of about 400 nautical miles by sea.
The most important ports of the Adriatic Sea - Rijeka, Koper, Trieste, Venice and
Ravenna - are located in the northern part of it. The sea itself is oriented northwest to
southeast, which is almost the same direction of the movement of an enormous flow of
11
goods between the regions of central/west Europe on the one hand and northeast Africa
and the Middle East on the other, thus facilitating the transport. The other main access to
Europe, similar with the Adriatic, is the Tyrrhenian Sea, that serves Spain and France
with the ports of Barcelona, Marseilles, Genoa, among others.
A question arises inevitably. Why does a good part of the world-wide trade
commodities coming from the Suez Canal (oil, to mention the most important one) make
all the sea voyage around the Gibraltar Strait via ports of northern Europe for being
distributed back to central Europe instead of calling in the southern ports? There are
geographical as well as non-geographical factors that determine this situation.
Nevertheless, this exploration goes beyond the scope of present work and the question
was posed only to explain why it is normal that the main ports of the Adriatic Sea are
located in its northern part, as it can be seen from the following figure.
Figure 3: MAIN ADRIATIC PORTS OF ITALY � GATEWAY TO EUROPE
So, to summarize the geographical situation, following factors can be mentioned:
12
- The access to the southern Adriatic enables Albania to make use of the sea for
the transport needs.
- For geographical, economical and political reasons, a good part of the Albanian
transport has the destination/origin in the north.
- As a conclusion, the sea-segment of Albanian foreign transport is always
present, being a necessity for some destinations and an efficient component for
the others.
In the above paragraphs, the geographical conditions that determine the role of the
sea for Albanian transport were explained to some extent. How much they were used for
the benefit of the transport is another matter - the difference between natural possibilities
and their actual utilization is surprising.
This is the moment to make two considerations:
i) It is almost impossible to explain economical choices without entering into
political analysis; but since the object of this work is only a professional view of the
problem, the political considerations will be avoided as much as possible.
ii) On the other hand, despite the fact that passenger transport was so little
developed, at the same time, sea transport was used to a good extent for cargo traffic. In
Albania there was a well-developed National Shipping Company, carrying out the foreign
trade by sea in many destinations around the globe. The ports were also equipped with
cargo-handling and other necessary facilities for loading and discharging the vessels.
Why then was the passenger transport so restricted? This question cannot be
answered without having some elementary ideas about the organization of a communist
state and society.
Firstly, every state needs to a certain extent the export and import of goods - it is
impossible to produce everything what is needed within the borders. Seen in that light,
Albania, despite the fact that it was trying to be as much as possible dependent on its own
13
products, was also a partner in the foreign trade, mostly with the countries belonging to
the Eastern Europe communist block.
Secondly, for political reasons, the exchange of people with the surrounding
world was kept to a minimum, especially from the late 1960s onwards, when the
economy was going down, so that the people could not see the difference. What is meant
by �minimum� in this context? In the Albanian case, it meant only the people included in
the government/company�s business trips. Actually, up to very recently, the Albanians
used to have only ID Cards, not normal passports valid for travelling out of the country.
According to the Article 1 of the Decree of the Parliament no. 7933, dated June, 12,
1990, which is quoted below,
�The citizens of Republic of Albania have the right to have a passport or
another equivalent document for going out and getting in from/to the territory
of Republic of Albania...� (OFFICIAL GAZETTE OF REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA,
No.4/1990)
Thirdly, going abroad was impossible also for economical reasons for the
common Albanian citizen. Everything was constructed in the form of a closed economy,
totally controlled by the state. As a result, the system of wages and other services was
adapted for a life with incomes far away from the extremes, with people that used to go
along easily with the basic needs but not to put aside a great deal of money. In any case,
even the money itself was useless for any other purpose, holidays included.
The reasons listed above give the explanation why the passenger transport by sea
was so uncommon for the Albanian conditions. These also explain why the Albanian
passenger market, although with modest capabilities, is seen as �booming business� by
national and foreign ferry operators, as will be highlighted in the following chapter.
The democratic movements of end �80-s in Eastern Europe affected immediately
the Albanian society. Without entering in too many details as far as political
14
developments are concerned, only their reflection in the transport of passengers to and
from Albania will be considered.
From the spring of 1990, the still existing communist Parliament passed a law that
allowed Albanian citizens to have valid passports for travelling abroad. During that year
and the following, other measures were applied aiming at a gradual change of the
stringent rules and regulations both in the political and economic life. These gradual
steps were welcome, but only the first democratic government that came into power in
April 1992 created the conditions for real changes in all the segments of life, that in turn,
served as a catalyst also for changes in the passenger transport.
Among the most important actions taken were the privatization in agriculture and
industry, the right for Albanian citizens to invest in new enterprises with the participation
of domestic and foreign investors and so on. However, what may be the key factor in this
respect was the fact that the Albanians obliged to live outside the borders were not
forbidden any longer to maintain contacts with the homeland, as had been the case
before. On the contrary, they were encouraged to come and visit their kinship and help
them financially by all available means. This was an important chance for the ferry
transport. A demand of several hundreds of thousands Albanian emigrants was around -
in Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Germany - eager to use the service. The various ferry
operators of the region and outside grabbed immediately this offered possibility.
15
I.4. CREATION OF THE PASSENGER SHIPPING MARKET
As explained above, the political situation does have an enormous influence in the
economical development of the country, the people exchange with abroad being most
affected than everything else. Provided other conditions prevailed, what would have
been the influence of the Albanian geographical and economical constitution towards the
creation and establishment of a normal passenger-shipping scene?
This cannot be simply highlighted by mentioning the creation of the passenger
shipping market in the last 10 years; would have been quite effortless tentative indeed,
but leading to a biased conclusion, because it was quite a hectic development, caused by
a random combination of the
• enormous desire of the population to travel abroad,
• the awkwardness of the government to provide clear and fair rules and
regulations trenching it -
• the pressure of small- and medium-sized foreign investments for having
hastily prepared working conditions at sea and ashore (as usual, these
companies are the first ones which test an unknown reality).
Consequently, the passenger shipping in Albania in the last 10 years shapes a
rather uprising line of traffic, which unfortunately disguises behind it a long story of
under- or overloaded shipping lines, unborn destinations and dying routes.
The possibility of creation the passenger market around the service offered is as
true as the opposite one - the creation of the service upon a passenger demand. In terms
of flexibility of these two elements, many authors support the conclusion that �demand is
volatile, quick to change and comparatively unpredictable, whilst supply is
ponderous and slow to change� (Stopford, p.63). This statement was (unfortunately)
proven quite valid in Albanian ferry transport history with regards to the transit traffic to
FYROM, as will be discussed on the adjacent section.
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