Since the liberalization of visas, the situation in the gastronomy sector is not the same as it was before. Businesses are already facing a lack of workers and lack of activity in their premises. The continuation of these two problems is also affecting the closure of businesses.

The owners of some of the frequented businesses in Pristina have emphasized that since January of this year, many workers have left their jobs and that their replacement is very difficult.

Likewise, economists are also considering this situation with the migration of gastronomy workers as worrying. According to them, the Government should help businesses with subsidies, because they find it very difficult to manage these situations.

Adenis Kastrati, who manages one of the restaurants in Pristina, told KosovaPress that there is a shortage of workers and that he has opened a competition for workers but that there are no interested parties. According to him, all of them have gone outside of Kosovo and are trying to enter the European market.

Even Yll Dervishaj, who is part of a gastronomy business in the capital, says that if the rate of migration of gastronomy workers continues, next summer for businesses will not be so good.

Dervishaj has also called on the government to take measures to help these businesses.

Meanwhile, Flamur Ismajli, manager of one of the restaurants in the center of Prishtina, emphasizes that the government's help for businesses that are on the verge of closing would be the most appropriate decision.

The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Kosovo, Lulzim Rafuna, also says that the government should initiate financial support for businesses, who emphasizes that the government has not helped any business for seven years.

Even Arian Vranica from the Association of Gastronomists of Kosovo, tells KosovaPress that the state of businesses in Kosovo is in economic depression.

He said that businesses that are on the verge of closing should be managed and that the government should subsidize workers' wages.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, in a written response to KosovaPress, indicated that from the period January-March 2024, 40 gastronomy businesses were closed and that all were closed voluntarily.