IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/prbchp/978-3-032-17534-2_45.html

Soft Skills as a Strategic Asset in Modern Tourism Development (Case of Albania)

Author

Listed:
  • Irina Canco

    (European University of Tirana (UET))

  • Forcim Kola

    (European University of Tirana (UET))

  • Drita Kruja

    (European University of Tirana (UET))

Abstract

Tourism, as a cultural, economic, and social activity, thrives on the movement of people to diverse destinations, making the human dimension central to its development. In Albania, where both mountain and seaside tourism potentials are abundant, the sector’s growth underscores the critical role of workforce competencies, particularly soft skills, in enhancing service quality and competitiveness. This study explores the most demanded soft skills within Albania’s tourism. It investigates the current diffusion of these skills among employees in tourism enterprises such as hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, and travel agencies. Drawing on mixed-method research, including surveys and interviews with industry professionals, the findings reveal significant gaps between current workforce capabilities and future skill demands. The results emphasize the increasing importance of communication, teamwork, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, cultural sensitivity, and adaptability in fostering customer satisfaction and organizational resilience. The study highlights the strategic value of soft skills as a driver of sustainable tourism development in Albania and calls for targeted training programs to equip the workforce for future industry challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • Irina Canco & Forcim Kola & Drita Kruja, 2026. "Soft Skills as a Strategic Asset in Modern Tourism Development (Case of Albania)," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics,, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-032-17534-2_45
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-17534-2_45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Z32 - Other Special Topics - - Tourism Economics - - - Tourism and Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-032-17534-2_45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.