INFORMATION ABOUT TOURISTS ARRIVAL IN POLAND

Hi all!

I have been searching on-line for the number of tourists arriving Poland yearly and other stats relating to that. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any.

Can someone help and give me some links where I can get some stats about the number of tourists arrival, which countries' citizen are coming more, when tourists visit Poland mostly, which city do tourists like to stay.

I will be very grateful you you could help me out or send me some links. In English would be great but I wouldn't mind in Polish as I will seek the help or Google Translator.

Thanking you in advance.

intur.com.pl/itenglish/inboundtourism.php?t1=3

You can explore other pages from the same site as well.

moved from

Polska on the upswing!

• 
  Polish tourism booming!
  

@Nothanks: check OFFICIAL figures and compare Poland with France and Spain, and aslo the US (although the US could be compared to all Europe because of its size). France has some 75 millions tourists each year compared to 17 millions in Poland ;))

@Nothanks: get your facts rights. Here's from World Bank data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL

For years 2011-2015: France is no. 1 with 84,726 million and compared to other European countries, Spain some 60 millions, Italy some 47 millions, Germany some 31 millions, and Poland some 15,800 millions so no hard to understand that Poland has a long way to go to go ahead of western countries ;).

...and will never match the favourite tourist haunts. Northern Euopeans are naturally attracted to the beaches, surf and palm trees of the south as well as the greater number of historical monuments in other countries.

Poland simply doesn't have the tourist infrastructure to accommodate large numbers of tourists. Anyway, who wants lardarse drunken Brits littering the Baltic beaches? Poland could do a lot more to encourage internal tourism. Hotels are often disappointing, and when you go on holiday in Poland, there's often not very much to do. It's improving, but veeeery slooooowly.

It's always "coś za coś", isn't it? Tourism is a great source of income. on the other hand, throngs of tourists can trample and litter a country's natural habitats and give rise to insightly road signs, tacky souvenir stalls and snack bars. Tourism also encourages the drug trade, prostitution and other unsavoury developments.

Poland will never become a (major) touristic area simply because of its climate and geography. Tourists don't want crappy and unreliable weather. Polish mountains are low (in some areas, I call them "hills"), Polish sea is cold, grey, polluted, Mazury lakes are very modest and cannot compete with for instance lakes in any of the Alpine country or of Finland. Poland cannot change this ;).

Infrastructures are very limited. Just compare mountain and sea resorts in western Europe or many places with Poland's. Last year (in winter), I was in Krynica Zdroj and earlier this very month I was in Muszyna. There was no snow but fine with me since I don't like snow but ... boring to death! Once out of hotels, nothing to do. Sure, as they say in brochures, people can drink (mineral) water and walk around but h/... !!! are people going to drink 50 liters of water and walk around all day???? In Muszyna, it's even worse. The socalled "rynek" is no more than 100m2 and the big attractions there are a .. Pepco store (I had never been to any) and vis à vis a Biedronka store. Not even a restaurant! Only a bumish drinking joint for local alcoholics. As of now, for me, never again!

Cities in Poland look all the same, with same architecture. Sure, some have a nice old towns (sometimes not that old) but it takes max. 1 hour to see what there is to see.

Sorry, bad climate, not exceptional geography, unedequate infrastructures don't attract tourists. I assume that at least 90% of the tourists to Poland are from Polonia (normal that people of Polish origin want to see where their ancestors came from) and from East Germany. Others very rarely come to Poland or when they do, it's because they have first come to Prague and they want to see Poland for 1 or 2 days because they are in the area before going back home.

For same money, tourists prefer by very far to visit Croatia (diversified and beautiful country, warm in the summer and not bad in winter, nice sea, fresh fish as opposed to frozen fish from supermarkets served on the Polish coast), good food (fruit and vegetables riped under the sun), acceptable to decent wine...). For not much more money, tourists can go to Greece or to Spain and sorry, Poland of course cannot compete with them...

That statement would be a surprise to most.


Rife in Poland without help from overseas visitors who in any case can't read the thousands of adverts.


"Clean rooms for €10 a night" - not in Warsaw.

Yup, pretty much. It's quite surreal that people spend the same money going to the Baltic Sea in summer with the unpredictable weather and freezing sea as they would on going to Croatia. I was looking last summer - I had a very nice, decent-sized apartment next to the beach for 30 Euro/night in Croatia. In Poland, the same thing was coming in at around 50 Euro/night. No brainer.

It makes me laugh that people think they're eating fresh fish on the Polish coast. One look at the fish and you can see that it's anything but ;)


Some places are quite ok, such as Karkonosze, but you're right - the infrastructure just isn't that developed. I did a summer camp in Darlowo one summer with a friend for a laugh, and it was striking just how little there actually was to do in the town.


Problem is, they've already wrecked many pleasant places through uncontrolled development. I remember being completely bewildered in Bieszczady that they could allow the night silence to be destroyed after 10pm with bars playing thunderously loud music - it really destroyed the entire atmosphere of the place.

@Delph: so Croatia would be even cheaper than Poland???? I'd always thought cost was similar (I went several times to Croatia but before living in Poland and all the Poles I know going there now say prices (restaurants, overall cost of living ... ) are the sames as in Poland. So, even if similar prices, Croatia most easliy beats Poland and I'm sure there are several times more tourists in Croatia than in Poland. For cheap seaside vacations, I wonder whether Bulgaria would be a pleasant enough deal. At least Bulgaria offers better weather and warmer sea than Poloand and I'm sure that resorts such as Gold Sands attract several times more tourists than Polish coast does... I know quite a few (Polish) people from Gdynia and surroundings and they all say they never go swimming because too ... cold, too dirty....

@Roger: there are good and even great hotels in Poland, the best ones being very expensive though but the problem is that if guests mean to get out of their hotel, there is nothing to do and to see in area (I'm not talking obviously about main cities).

As said, out of Polonia (normal) and of East Germany (as close as could be), genuine tourists are very rare in Poland (official numbers confirm). Main problem in Poland is the climate and nobody can do anything about it ;)

And the tourists representing less "mass" versions of tourism - others than those going to holiday resorts to lie flat on the beach in order to get a sunburn. This kind of tourism is most popular and it's obvious that it will not develop in Poland. Even though we have really long and beautiful beaches at the Baltic sea (in fact the whole coast is a single enormous beach), the weather is doing its job, and even really many people from Poland prefer to go abroad (which doesn't matter that the Polish beaches in the high season aren't so busy that it's difficult to find a place there).

@kpc: water is cold, grey, polluted. There is a lot of wind on the beach. Personally, in order to go swimming, I need minmium ... 25° so in Poland I can forget it ;)

As to long sandy beaches: have you been to the Algarve (Portugal) or along the Atlantic coast in France (with La Baule, which is the longest beach in Europe) ?

Croatia loses in terms of food, but good accommodation is cheaper and the weather is far more predictable. Montenegro is also worthwhile, but it's a two day drive as opposed to a single overnight drive to most of Croatia. I was seriously considering going to Croatia for a week now - I found nice apartments for 500zł for a week, and it was 15c in Split last week. Petrol is ridiculously cheap right now, so if I was doing it on the cheap, I could go shopping here in Auchan and be able to go for a week for less than 1500zł.


Bulgaria is quite nasty apparently, but I don't have any personal experience. The problem with Bulgaria is that you can't really drive there, whereas someone going from Warsaw can easily make most of Croatia in one overnight journey. I've done Wrocław-Zagreb before in 9 hours for instance - you can easily be in Zadar within 11. In comparison, someone from Wrocław going to Kolobrzeg or other nasty Baltic 'resorts' will spend about 6 hours getting there - it's pointless

As for the Baltic - quite. I can't figure out why anyone would swim in the Baltic, especially further to the east where Russia is pouring who-knows-what into the sea!

@Delph: in Croatia, they eat mediterranean (for sure on the coast): (fresh) fish, vegetables and fruit grown under the sun, olive oïl and thus have the best diet doctors recommend. I am very fussy and very ... delicate and I have always enjoyed their food. I dont know Bulgaria personally but probably a lot of underdevelopped infrastructures. As to Montenegro, nice lanscapes but very expensive and on top of that they use "euro"' (myster to me) but underdevelopped infrastructures.

Obviously, for similar prices as in Poland and within reasonable reach, Croatia is the place.

The OP asked for INFORMATION ABOUT TOURISTS ARRIVAL IN POLAND if you continue to take threads off topic, then expect some time out!

Boy! Russians throwing all their chemical and maybe including some ... nuclear waste into the Baltic Sea! Don't Polish and other concerned countries' authorities know about it? If so, it is really dangerous and it is irresponsible not to warn people...