Marjana Koçeku announced a day ago her departure from the Socialist Party of Albania and her continuation of her mandate as an independent MP.
However, in a post published about five days ago, Koçeku shared a personal reflection on her experience in developing a family guesthouse in the north of the country, telling the story of the restoration of an old tower and the use of a traditional cooking vessel that, according to her, has served thousands of visitors over the years, while appreciating the investments in resorts.
She describes the transformation of the family building from traditional use into a reception space for foreign tourists, linking this to the idea of authentic tourism and small local enterprises that, according to her, can have a great impact on economic development.
Post:
When I decided to open the guesthouse 5 years ago, I had to borrow 2 thousand euros from a cousin to restore the tower, more precisely to insulate the moisture that had covered the walls by making them look like maps. The total cost was about 1 thousand euros. I paid back the rest.
I didn’t change anything much, including this eye you see below, which is older than my biological age.
The goal was to give this relic a whole new mission, no longer to cook for family and relatives, but for foreign visitors…
In 5 years, this chef has cooked for around 25 thousand visitors, not counting previous family meals, for weddings, funerals, blood reconciliations, and all sorts of other events that our areas have.
It has accompanied us through good and bad, through economic failures and successes.
If I were to gather all the people this chef has cooked for, I would say with conviction that he surpasses every dish in every best and biggest resort in Albania, to say the least. Maybe one day he will cook on a scale of a nation, but who knows…
Those who know me know very well that I have never been to a resort and I don’t think I ever will. In my preference, a resort is a world of luxury and negativity, a controlled and over-sterilized space, the decor of which excludes the true rhythm of a place.
But the truth is that a category of people (among whom are not a few Albanians) prefer such a world and are willing to pay any price to experience a happiness that is abstract to me, but apparently quite real to them.
When I took up the position of representative in parliament, one of my goals was to give impetus to small creative enterprises in tourism, without much investment, which in terms of volume and success sometimes reach even massive enterprises. An old tower, a blackened door from a fire, a simple table, can do more for the spirit of tourism than millions of investments that are built without direct links to the country.
