Albanians protesting plans to build luxury resorts on protected wetlands in the south of the country have spoken out against a tourism that caters to “elite tourists” while ignoring the needs of locals.
Some 100,000 Albanians have joined demonstrations in the capital Tirana over 18 consecutive days after Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner revealed plans to develop Sazan Island and the coastline of the Zvernec Peninsula.
The peninsula sits within the Vjosa-Narta delta, which is recognised as one of the most important coastal ecosystems in Europe. It is home to 70 endangered species, including the monk seal and loggerhead sea turtle, as well as migratory birds, flamingos and the Dalmatian pelican.
On the David Senra podcast at the end of May, Ivanka Trump revealed that she said that along with her husband, she was working on a real estate project on a “massive scale” along with “some of the greatest living architects of our time”.
Environmental organisations say bulldozers were brought onto the site on the Zvernec Peninsula before proper permits had been obtained or an environmental impact assessment carried out, and a barbed wire fence erected.
Activist Grigor Malo said: “We have seen the consequences of hectic and unchecked development in other parts of the coast, like Durrës and Saranda, which are largely seen as failures that have destroyed the beauty of what once were popular destinations.
He added: “People are suspicious towards the alternative of luxury tourism proposed by the government, because they see that the people benefiting from it are a small minority of investors and big land owners, and nature and landscapes are still being destroyed due to the intensity of construction.”
The demonstrations, now known as the “flamingo revolution”, began as environmental protests but have swelled into calls for a complete change of government, an end to corruption and the overhaul of a system that benefits a few at the expense of the many.
At the protest on Monday night, Arlind Qori, leader of the left-wing Levizja Bashke (Movement Together) party said: “We’re not against tourism per se, we’re against this model of money laundering, ignoring property rights of local residents, completely ignoring the environment, as well as benefiting a small clique around the Prime Minister and not the economy itself.”
Sitting close to the bottom of the GDP per capita table, Albania is recognised as one of the poorest countries in Europe, having suffered one of the most brutal communist regimes in history under Enver Hoxha, who ruled the country by terror for nearly four decades until the early 1990s.
Tourism is an important contributor to the economy with 12.5 million foreign visitors arriving in Albania in 2025. This was an increase from 11.7 million the previous year and almost double the number of foreign tourists six years earlier in 2019. While tourism has been welcomed, the speed of growth has led to concerns over environmental impact, long long-term resilience and effect on local communities.
Ariel Brunner, regional director of BirdLife for Europe and Central Asia, was at the site in Zvernec when the bulldozers arrived. He said: “Albania has already destroyed a fair amount of their coast line, often with chaotic, poor quality and unsustainable development. But it still has some amazing nature areas, the Vjosa-Narta delta being arguably the best one. These areas must be preserved, and used in a sensitive way, by both international and domestic tourists.”
He added: “I am sure that most Albanians do want to see a thriving tourism sector. The point is that protesters insist tourism development must be legal, free of corruption, respect the country’s natural heritage, and be done in ways that help improve the lives of the majority and not just the profit of the well connected few.”
Melitjan Nezaj, a wildlife biologist and member of the Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania has been at all the protests in Tirana. He said has been listening to demonstrators state clearly that they “don’t want to be Dubai”.
Mr Nezaj added: “Having elite tourists using protected areas and excluding the locals is not the way we want our country to be developed.”