Saturday, 11 February 2012



Club Med Project in Albania Dropped due to Land Ownership Issues



BalkanTravellers.com   

17 June 2009 | The French resort chain Club Méditerranée has dropped its project for the operation of a tourist complex on the Adriatic Sea in southern Albania because of an extended dispute over the ownership of the land, representatives of the chain wrote in a letter cited by international media on Tuesday.

“There’s no project for a Club Med in Albania,” Florence Le Gall, Club Mediterranee's director of regional development, wrote to villagers claiming ownership of the land at the Bay of Kakome, 220 kilometres south-west of the capital, Tirana and across from the Greek island of Corfu.

The complex, which was to be built by Albanian construction company Riviera at an estimated cost of 75 million euro and operated by Club Med, was meant to contain 350 luxury villas and a capacity of 700 beds.

After announcing that it is finally going forward with construction in January, following a five-year long controversy over the site’s ownership, Club Med said on Tuesday it is giving up on the project.

The dispute over the belonging of the land illustrates the property title claims which plague Albania in general and which, as BalkanTravellers.com reported in February, need to be resolved in order for the country to attract foreign investment and meet EU criteria for eventual membership.

Read more about Albania on BalkanTravellers.com
 

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