Tourism in Poland the plus and minus points for the natives

As we all know Poland is fast becoming a popular destination for tourism, I'm interested to know what the over all view is of this influx of tourists.

What do you see as the plus points?

What do you see as the down side?

Economy Boost is a definite, Jobs, work, etc!!!

Downside? um maybe not enough sleep??

Thanks for you input Remus but I was thinking more from the perspective of a Polish person living in Poland.

Prices in Poland go up as tourists can afford to pay more than the natives. Not only the real estate, but prices of food, restaurants etc.

Amathyst, merits are obvious - we need money so we need toursits. I live in Krakow and I really like to hear foreign languages being spoken spoken here. I think that tourists find Krakow interesting, charming. This city has it's soul.

Drawbacks? Sometimes it's difficult to find a seat and drink coffee at the Market Square but it's not a big deal. As you may see I can't find any problems.

I have been to your city twice and enjoyed it so much both times and will no doubt be going again at some point....thank you for your post.

But I wonder what the older generation think (I am assuming that you're in your 20is)

I was in my 20is 20 years ago :)

I went to Krakow recently and i thought it was a great place to visit and i enjoyed my time there very much, it has a good mix of night life and sites to visit while your there. I like some of the historical buildings and the history of the city.

However on the whole i found the people of Krakow to be very rude in most cases, for example, shops, on the street, hotels etc etc. Of course i'm not saying every Polish person is rude of course not, i was just so surprised at this having been friends with many Polish back in my home country England.

There were some very nice people in Krakow and overall i loved it, there was one strange thing though, there was a club in Krakow that was basically somebodies garage i think, when you went in there were no seats or anything to sit on just a simple bar with drinks that were taken out of their packets and given to you in bottles. I don't know if it was a legal establishment but it was great, a real bit of Polish culture and something that you don't see in good old Blighty :)

I think the Polish are just not as "flowery" as we are in the UK, they are more direct and less yes sir no sir, after a couple of visits to Poland I discovered that. However, the airports with Polish people (both their and and in the uk) I could have happily killed someone for pushing in or worse pushing me, trust me Im a lady but I wont be pushed!

I have said this before on other threads but I think that good service is lacking, if it had not been for meeting some people who informed me and my friend its best to ask for the bill if you are staying for only one beer / coffee when you get your drink, if you dont you end up waiting such a long time (we had already discovered this the day before).....but to be honest when you're sat in such lovely surroudings on such a nice day its not really the end of the world.


I have to ask this, because its an obvious one for me, but dont the residents of Krakow get a little bit tired of stag parties, do you think that the City will try and discourage this? I personally would welcome it if they did.

It's a pity, Tornado, but I find a lot of people here to be very rude too. And I really don't know why it's like that. Probably those people are frustrated - overworked and underpaid. Maybe all those communist years did it to us - there was so much to complain about. However, I think that most people in Poland are nice and for sure not rude but it's much easier to spot those rude.

yes Alicja i think your right, it is easier to notice negative things about something, somebody or a place that we visit. However i have been to other countries that have supposedly suffered under the communist regime but the people are not rude there, for example take Moscow in Russia.

I'm not putting a downer on the Polish, i just don't think you can blame communism and communists for everything, lol, however you can blame them for those ugly great big gray tower blocks!!! they are buildings!!!! really?? i wouldn't live in them

Have your forgotten about 70s architecture in the UK?? what was our excuse?? I think you will find in almost all countries outside the city centre there will be tower blocks, this I have noticed in every country I have be to.

yeah we can put that down to an off year or so :)

Now we just have "posh" tower blocks! or even worse, converted 70s "posh" tower blocks".

Anyway back to topic.

Plus and minus of tourism in Poland

Plus - Polish people get familiar with other cultures and (hopefully) become less racist.

i don't think its because their racists or even bigots its just they are stubborn in their own ways in life, every country has its culture and likes to stick to it

Im not sure that the Polish are particularly racist, but rather they have not been subjected to other cultures / races as much as some countries - and these other countries still have racist isssues, lets not forget this.

It's a pity, Tornado, but I find a lot of people here to be very rude too. And I really don't know why it's like that. Probably those people are frustrated - overworked and underpaid. Maybe all those communist years did it to us - there was so much to complain about. However, I think that most people in Poland are nice and for sure not rude but it's much easier to spot those rude.

Minus - Poland becomes more multicultural and "westernized" ; the native values (religion, monogamy, culture) become less important; commercialization and shopping becomes a favorite pastime of most Poles.

ups...sorry

Hello, you are right realising all those changes but they have nothing to do with tourists. It's much wider problem. And I'm not sure about religion - I'm afraid that there are more "churchgoers" than religious people. For many a Sunday mass is kind of habit, a social event, an opportunity to dress up. I saw this problem in this way 20 years ago and I don't think that it has changed so much.

It's rather not a young/old thing. Rather location. In Kraków there has been many tourists since really many years. I remember real hordes of Japanese there about 10 years ago. On the other hand in some small fogtotten town I could bet that a "stag party" wouldn't end up bloodless.

I dont think the English on stag doos go to fight, yes they are annoying but not violent. And I dont think any town would knock back the amount of money the English spend on these weekends, each person generally takes about £500 / £700 to spend for a few days....

No need to bring violence in to it G.

I wasn't talking about English.

Okay, soz for jumping on you for that, so who were you talking about then?

its nice to see people making up :) how cute lol

What have you seen in Poland ? Kraków and Wrocław ? If you go to a "night club" in a small town you will find many weiridos on steroids just waiting for excuse to beat someone. Sometimes only for being from another town.

News to me, please provide the facts. what is your interest in this matter?

People visit Poland because it is cheap, once other eastern bloc countries become more organized, things will change.

Lef, most tourist destinations that attract people in large amounts is because of price, your from Oz, how many people a year from there travel to the asians countries. Its all about price and what people can afford.

so speaks the man on the other side of the world who once again shows how little he knows about whats going on in poland... and why...

Every major UK airport has at least 2 deinstination, Poland has been featured on travel programmes and it has large spreads in magazines as "Krakow" as one of the most wonderful cities to visit.

My interest in the matter was see how the Polish feel about this interest in their country and to actually have a thread that didnt include "what a bloody man/woman wants" and something actually related to Poland.