Foreign Arrivals in Albania Up 5.3% in Eight Months, 2% in August

Albania's statistics institute, INSTAT, recorded 9,443,700 entries by foreign citizens between January and August 2026, according to its Movement of Citizens release published on 25 September. That is 5.3% more than the 8,969,002 recorded in the same eight months of 2025.

Growth slowed at the height of the summer. Foreign arrivals in August reached 2,429,532, up 2.0% from 2,381,864 a year earlier. Albanian Daily News described it as the weakest August growth since the pandemic.

Including Albanian citizens, total entries were 3,459,588 in August (up 2.7%) and 15,452,553 for January to August (up 5.6%).

A slower peak month

By our calculation from INSTAT's cumulative figures, foreign arrivals in January–July were about 6.5% higher than a year earlier (7.01 million against 6.59 million). August's 2.0% rise was therefore well below the pace of the rest of the year, although a single month is not enough to show whether the slowdown will last. August alone still accounted for about a quarter of all foreign arrivals in the first eight months.

What the figures measure

The data come from the State Police and count every border crossing. A visitor who enters Albania twice appears twice, so the figures measure arrivals rather than individual tourists.

INSTAT also said it had found inconsistencies in the administrative data it receives. Until the series has been harmonised, it is publishing only aggregate totals, so the usual breakdown by nationality and region is not available for August. The next release, covering September, is scheduled for 23 October.

For comparison, INSTAT recorded 12,466,038 arrivals of foreign citizens across the whole of 2025, nearly 12.5 million and 6.6% more than in 2024, according to its December 2025 release.