Profile

Blendi Gonxhja

Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports
Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports

Blendi Gonxhja, born in Tirana on June 15, 1970, currently serves as Albania’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports, a position he has held since September 2025. Before this appointment, from January 2024, he was Minister of Economy, Culture and Innovation. His public service career has been marked by a continuous focus on modernization, cultural heritage, and democratic engagement. Between 2018 and 2024, he led the General Directorate of Road Transport Services under the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, where he spearheaded a comprehensive digital and infrastructural transformation. This included simplifying procedures for citizens, improving service standards across the country, and launching “Retro” – Albania’s Collection of Historical Vehicles, a pioneering initiative that was later recognized internationally by FIVA, the International Federation of Historical Vehicles. Gonxhja’s career began in the late 1990s, when he was Chief of Cabinet at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, followed by his appointment as Deputy Mayor of Tirana in 2000. After working with the Rothschild and Packard foundations in 2003, he ventured into entrepreneurship in Albania and Greece, particularly in the transport sector. Returning to public administration in 2015, he first became General Director of Enterprise No. 1 of City Workers, and shortly after, head of the newly established Agency of Parks and Recreation in Tirana. A graduate of the Jordan Misja Art School (1989) and the Higher Institute of Arts, today’s University of Arts (1993), Gonxhja was a central figure in Albania’s democratic student movement. He played a leading role in the 1991 student strike that demanded the abolition of dictatorship cults, and later testified before the US Congress in 1996 on human rights and democracy in Albania. That same year, he received a Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Michigan.