Albania's poorest town hopes communist tunnels can revive tourism industry

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Built to defend an isolationist totalitarian regime that nobody wanted to attack, the tunnels in north-eastern Albania stretch on for miles — and now a town is pinning its financial hopes on them.

abc.net.au/news/tunnels-albania-balkan-tourism/102174544If you'd like to walk for miles in concrete burrows built to defend an isolationist totalitarian regime that nobody wanted to attack, Kukës in north-eastern Albania is the place for you.

Equipped with amenities running from a prosecutor's office to a maternity clinic, it was Albania's biggest fortification project, with tunnels extending for up to 7 kilometres. Tourism is a major earner, generating 17 per cent of GDP in 2021, while arrivals increased 33 per cent in 2022 to reach some 7.5 million people.

Kukës Mayor Safet Gjici says potential tourists would be offered gastronomical experiences as well as the tunnel experience. Older local residents have vivid memories of the complex, which was built largely with mass local labour and was only used once in a civil defence drill, in the late 1980s, which sent the entire Kukës population underground.

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euro equivalent of US flyover states PS...probably wont

Yeah... now used for human trafficking. No chance I'd go in them.

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