Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 8
Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Eye Albania's Sazan Island for Luxury Resort Despite Mines
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 8

Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Eye Albania's Sazan Island for Luxury Resort Despite Mines

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 8

Summary

  • Sazan Island, the uninhabited Albanian outpost Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner want for a luxury resort, is strewn with bramble, old mines and venomous snakes.
  • Ivanka Trump said on a podcast she swam from a friend's boat to the island and hiked barefoot to the top, describing the couple as captivated by its beauty.
  • A dozen Albanian soldiers now occupy ramshackle quarters by the harbor, while day-trippers from nearby Vlore visit an island otherwise free of the mainland coast's expanding hotels and restaurants.
  • The interest highlights the contrast between Sazan's turquoise-water appeal and the rugged, militarized terrain that would complicate any high-end tourism development.

Insights

Can a luxury resort be built on a mined island without destroying the very nature its developers praise?
Will a $4 billion resort on protected land be Albania's tourism triumph or an ecological and political disaster?