PIUTD - Albania

The Integrated Urban and Tourism Development Project (PIUTD), financed by the World Bank Group, supports the Government of Albania (GoA) in developing the economy and improving living conditions in southern Albania by financing infrastructure projects in the urban centres of Gjirokastra, Saranda, Berat and Përmet. The project also extends to selected complementary sites in the vicinity of these urban centres that are of cultural and natural interest and contribute to enhancing their tourist attractiveness. The urban centres targeted by the PIUTD are all towns with a relatively small resident population - between 5,000 and 40,000 inhabitants - but which play a key role in hosting and distributing tourists throughout southern Albania. In particular, Gjirokastra and Berat are well-established UNESCO World Heritage cities; Gjirokastra is the country's southernmost port and serves as the tourist gateway to the region and to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Butrint, while Përmet, located in Gjirokastra County, completes the southern tourism product as the pivot of the Southern Albanian tourism circuit in the heart of the Balkans.
The integrated urban regeneration interventions supported by the PIUTD in the four target urban centres improve the living conditions of local inhabitants and promote tourism-based economic development in sensitive urban areas. The Project combines these interventions in cohesive investment programmes, including the rehabilitation of public spaces (parks, squares, pedestrian paths), road networks, intermodal nodes and related infrastructure (pavements, road crossings, street lights, bicycle lanes, bus stations), the restoration of selected heritage buildings and the improvement of facades of selected buildings, and the enhancement of tourist sites (access roads, visitor centres, car parks, signage).