Erind's story represents an inspiring example of vision and the courage to follow dreams. In this interview, Erind Sula shares his personal story, the inspiration behind his creation, "Amazing Albania ", as well as the challenges and successes in his journey to make a difference in the tourism industry in Albania. He also reveals the importance of embracing technology, dedication to service quality and his vision to further expand the services offered by "Amazing Albania".
Who is Erind?
I am a person who started my career in the tourism industry at the age of 20 with student organizations. This was not just a need to travel, but a desire of mine to meet all the needs of the students in the most qualitative way, as I saw that their programs had many shortcomings. Thus began my first steps in the tourism industry with internal destinations in Albania. Of course, these beginnings were not so successful in terms of numbers, but I think they differed in quality. After completing my studies, I joined the family business, which was a travel agency and transport service. I was positioned as the business developer in the company, a position I held until 2 years ago. I helped transform the business by influencing the family business to turn into one of the best tour operators in Albania and the Balkans. But I wasn't satisfied with that and I wanted to achieve more.
What was the next step? What prompted you to start a new initiative?
In recent years, the desire for "incoming" tourism bothered me. I didn't want to stay in one place, because staying in one place kills a business. I wanted to make this wish come true. I had a lot of accumulated experience in the sector and the flow curve of tourists in Albania had an upward trend, which increased my confidence that the time had come for "Amazing Albania". With incoming tourism, I aimed to offer packages to foreign tourists who would come to visit Albania. The space where Amazing Albania started operating was where few other operators operated. We chose to offer our services entirely online, unlike the usual way applied so far in this sector. So I think this approach has brought enough innovation for our platform to make a difference at this moment from similar existing platforms. Amazing Albania is one of the local tour operators that offers its services completely online.
Among other things, we offer organized tour trips with a 12-month schedule, which in tourism terms is called " guaranteed departures" . This is a typology of service that is sorely lacking in Albania, while it is highly sought after by tourists as many of them do not have the right information on what to do when they come to Albania.
However, now that I'm back to talking about the beginnings of the platform, I remember that when I came up with it I had to do a big upgrade myself first . You can't develop a company if you don't develop yourself first. It was necessary to combine not only my own tourist experience, but also the elements of technology, considering them necessary in this approach that was new to me. With the power that technology offers, I would be able to add value to many of the local, foreign, and tourist co-workers of all nationalities.
To take a concrete example, thanks to the use of innovative applications, now in our affiliate program we can identify through QR Code the experiences that each of our customers experiences in Albania in our network of partners such as hotels or restaurants. I think because we are among the first to have created a functional affiliate program in the tourism sector.
You operate in a sector where quality of service is vital. For this, trained human resources are needed, and in the times we live in, finding professionals is not easy. How was your approach?
As for our team, I can honestly say that it is truly one of our strongest points. Our work requires a well-chosen team, which is absolutely not easy, but it is also the most beautiful part. With my staff, I have a practice of referring to each person I approach as our first customer. If I can't convince them to believe in this project and actually be productive, I can never get any clients. At this point, we have done very well by overcoming the difficulty of the first steps and we now have a pretty consolidated team. I don't say this because I want to convince myself that they are good, but because I have really attached to the team people who share the same vision and desire to serve in the world of tourism. I always say that everyone is a genius. What we do is a total concentration of energies and their use in the most productive way possible for the achievement of our common goal.
Of course, the challenge of maintaining a great team has its challenges from time to time. We know that it is not enough to simply have a desire and vision to have a good team, so to make continuity and quality in services possible, we have internal systems that conduct quality audits periodically and at the same time we also use specific training according to the role of anyone.
Every month we have workshops and at least 1 time in 6 months we have real trainings abroad. One of the reasons is the adaptation of the culture we receive at foreign fairs to our culture. At every fair there are always forums and webinars that not only advertise the fair, but bring together all the interest groups and tourist operators inside and outside the country who turn even a simple meeting of the fair into a training.
How does Amazing Albania intend to develop further?
My plans for Amazing Albania are very big, because in addition to the DMC ( destination management company) and online tour operator that it is currently, I also want to give it the shape of an online booking platform . The goal of "Amazing Albania" is to turn into an advertising and booking platform not only for tours, but for all tourist services in Albania, mentioning accommodation structures, activities in every city of Albania and additional services such as rental cars, attraction tickets , various festivals or events.
Although only in the first steps, "Amazing Albania" seems to have a clear understanding of its role and orientation in terms of the development of a growing sector. We recall that 10 million foreign tourists visited Albania last year and this figure is expected to be exceeded in the following years. These developments highlight the need for quality services, high standards, applications of innovations and contemporary technologies and experienced people in the sector.
From this interview we had a positive feeling that with dedicated people like Erindi, our country will have a secure future as a destination preferred by visitors and tourists. So we can only wish "Amazing Albania" much success in its mission to promote the wonders of our country around the world!
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