Durres County

Durrës County functions as Albania's primary metabolic gateway, processing 95% of the nation's seaborne trade through a port that has operated continuously since Illyrian times. The county demonstrates how infrastructure becomes path-dependent: the same natural harbor that served ancient Epidamnos now handles 1.9 million tonnes annually, with cargo traffic growing 3.8% in early 2025. Location at the western terminus of Pan-European Corridor VIII makes Durrës irreplaceable—no other Albanian port can match its depth or connectivity.

The port exhibits keystone species characteristics. When it thrives, secondary industries cluster nearby; when capacity constraints bite, the entire national economy feels the pressure. A proposed €2.5 billion yacht marina development (Durrës Yacht & Marinas) represents niche expansion—attempting to capture luxury tourism revenues that currently flow to Croatian and Greek marinas. Whether this succeeds depends on whether infrastructure investment (the new Porto Romano commercial port, expected 2028) removes bottlenecks before competitors consolidate their positions.

Beyond the port, Durrës County's beaches attracted over 1 million visitors in 2023, making it Albania's most-visited coastal destination. This dual economy—industrial port and beach tourism—creates unusual zoning pressures. The county must balance polluting cargo operations against pristine tourism, a tension that ecological systems resolve through spatial separation but that urban planning often fails to achieve.