Ostensibly breaking the laws of the capitalist free market, tour operators have started to renounce profit in order to win government tenders.
Previously, Exit had reported on the ridiculous small profit margins claimed by travel agencies in order to provide the “cheapest” offer. But in a recent public procurement procedure of Albgaz it appears that this race to the bottom has arrived at its natural end point: claiming 0.00% profit.
The tender in question for airplane tickets and hotel accommodation at the value of 2.2 million lekë (~€16,000), which received 6 proposals. Although travel agency AR & LO shpk managed to provide an incredibly low profit margin, two other operators Planet shpk & Kelvin Andoni and Spirit Travel & Tours shpk decided they are done with pressing 0 hundreds of times and declared a profit margin of 0.00%. In March Spirit Travel still claimed a margin of 1 × 10-193%.
As the public procurement procedure values the lowest profit margin, both Planet shpk & Kelvin Andoni and Spirit Travel & Tours shpk were selected as winner.
The only logical outcome will now be that all travel agencies will start declaring 0.00% profit margins in order to stand a chance of winning government tenders. This in turn implies that all these tenders will be settled by lot, as is already generally the case with tenders for the security of government buildings.
