In the first half of the year, Albania was visited by over 5 million foreign nationals - exactly 5,059,069, a rise of 6.2 percent compared to last year. The figures were released by the Albanian statistics office INSTAT, and at first glance they look like one more chapter in the story of the Albanian tourism boom that for years has filled the Ionian Sea beaches with foreigners.

Most of the visitors come from Europe, with Southern Europe accounting for as much as 66 percent of European arrivals. As many as 98 percent of the foreigners entered for personal reasons - that is, for holiday - while entries for business purposes fell by 17.7 percent. The picture is clear: the neighbour to the southwest is becoming an ever more powerful summer destination, and its Saranda, Durrës and Ksamil are no longer a secret to anyone in the Balkans.

But behind the positive numbers there is also an unspoken sentence. According to the Albanian tourism ministry, the number of tourists is nonetheless below expectations - and the reason, they say, is the protests that have been going on for almost two months in Tirana. Political instability, then, takes its toll even where it is least wanted - in the tourist season, in the period when every day on the beach is income for some family.

And here lies a lesson that holds for us too. Tourism is the industry most sensitive to political unrest - the guest does not read election results, but reads headlines about protests and quickly changes destination. Albania spent years building a tourist reputation and capacity, but one political crisis in the capital is enough to cool expectations. The question for every Balkan country that leans on summer is the same: how long can the economy grow while the politics burns?