Diber is one of the poorest municipalities in the norther east of Albania. Tourism as an engine of economic development is necessary to open up the region’s under-developed landscape, mountains and nature.

USAID and Sweden are funding a three-year project - Diber Trails & Tradition (D2T) – to promote sustainable and integrated tourism. This innovative and eco-friendly project is being implemented in Diber Municipality through the programme Tourism as a Leading Edge. The project is being implemented by the Albanian Local Community Development Fund and CNVP, in cooperation with the municipality

CNVP’s main project responsibility is capacity building of rural communities, including: coaching, training and hands-on technical assistance; using multi-stakeholder and participatory processes; and networking/lobbying.

During December 2017, CNVP held ten awareness raising meetings in potential tourist villages where the project was presented to local producers/farmers, producer groups and small businesses. All year round tourism opportunities and bottlenecks were identified, as was the potential for building capacity to improve restaurants, hotels, B&B, shops, hiking, horse riding, personnel, communication and marketing through the development of business-to-business (B2B) activities.

Important issues to be taken into account include tourism in protected areas, eco-tourism, agro-tourism, thermal water/health tourism, biodiversity, use of scarce water and energy, land and landscapes, as well as tourist-related waste and emissions. The gender and youth balance of employment opportunities in the tourism sector is also an important issue.