What can Poland do to attract more tourists? Llamas farm?

I think more naked girls would do the trick. Winter would be a problem, tho

Fur coats and warm boots. Sorted.

Some have natural fur too so well and truly sorted.

it could try not having riots on Independence Day

Naked riots?

Tourism is a good thing. We call it in Turkey "industry without chimney"... But you have to be carefull not to destroy nature and culture by making money from it.

And I belive archaeology is an important part of tourism. you should dig more place that possibly has historical ruins.

niiiiice, at this time of year nipples would be massive!

This thread is quickly making sense ;)

What can Poland do?

1)Smile more, stare less.

2)Understand the concept of customer service.

3)Better restaurants.

Those things alone will make a huge difference. Probably sounds shallow but the average tourist wants the above no matter where they are. To attract tourists they need first and foremost to be ready for them, to understand the concept properly, to accept them (albeit grudgingly, as long as it is not displayed) as income and potentially, a big chunk of it.

Believe me, everything else will fall into place once the above is addressed because Poland has plenty to offer otherwise.

Smile enough I think ,politeness SUPER also,

Im from toursim country ,nature,historical place,are NOTİNG.

First; Poland need just more enjoy area ,like amsterdam,or Bodrum in Turkey halikarnasos,1. class bars,clubs,Bar and clubs street, old city wonderful place but empty nobody in there because not enogh place for enjoy, must to be 24 hour enjoy not sleep.

Second; Casinos, poland casinos very small and games too low, poland must open all 5 stars hotels casinos but not small like now, minimum 25 table and 5000 slots ,and must works with Casinos taravel agency bring customers from other countries,realy good business.Im sorry but europa doesnt know about casino business ,USA and China are best ,Just las vegas made money and tourist more than other 49 states. Las vegas in desert.

I think if poland tourism and culture minister pay attention this Poland perfect contry noting wrong,beautifull and cultured contry and people.

I think there's a potential market for guided tours tailored to specific individuals or groups from other countries want to walk the ground and see the places where their Polish ancestors lived. North Americans are particularly interested in learning about their roots - the whole genealogy industry is seeing explosive growth with the advent of the internet. They would visit Poland provided there was a guide to help them with the language and to get them around. It would take people out into the small villages and spread their money around more. Accommodation could be handled by having people stay in private homes - bed and breakfast kind of concept.

Ah see ! I stumble across this thread and my teeth are already grinding !!

This is one of my pet hates as I am continually frustrated by the non efforts of the Polish Tourism board to promote the country to the rest of the world.

Merged: Why does Poland not have a lot of tourists?

I remember reading an article (can't find it now, but if I do I'll post it), and Poland was ranked one of the worst in Europe when it comes to tourism. I used to think that it was a lack of advertising, but I don't think this is the reason. Look at Czech Republic and Hungary for example. Its not like they are any better at advertising tourism than Poland. Yet Prague and Budapest have way more tourists, and they are much more popular and famous around the world. Why is it that Poland is practically unknown to most? I was always told Krakow has tons of people from around the world, but when I went last summer, the vast majority of the tourists were Polish tourists, and there was very few people there, the same thing with Zakopane. Howcome Western European countries get all the spotlight while Poland has nothing? Poland has beaches and mountains, yet most people couldn't care less and would rather visit the alps instead. Zamosc is another perfect example. Everyone on this forum says its so famous etc ect, yet its practically deserted when you go there.

Lived in Warsaw for two years. Been coming to Poland off and on for a decade. Have been to Gdansk, Torun, Bydgoszcz, Plock, Kutno, Lodz, Warszawa, Krakow, Lublin, Poznan, Katowice, Krakow, Wroclaw, Legnica and a bunch of villages in the mountains. Here's an honest answer to this question

1. Poles are horrible at self promotion. How else did they let the media start calling German Nazi death camps, Polish death camps? Why do people on the internet have this idea that Poland is antisemetic, backwards, corrupt, super poor, and freezing cold all the time? Answer, no ability to self-promote. I've seen a lot of people suggest adds on CNN for Poland. They have a bunch of them, and they're awful. They always get some dude with a super thick accent, and they show all the wrong things in the adds.

2. Poles are not very friendly to oustiders. I don't mean that shop owners aren't polite to tourists. I mean that average people are very standoffish. Maybe work on that.

3. Worst damn roads EVER, EVER, EVER FIX THEM. Yeah, I know. they are, but not really. For ten years i've seen them struggle to build a handfull of highways. While the highways are great, go 20 KM from a major city and you're on horrible roads, stuck behind tractors and tiny fiats, and old drunks on bicyces. Meanwhile semi trucks are tearing up the roads and foreign tourists throw up their hands in frustration. For instance I love going to the mts. in the south, but woud like to Nuke all the "villages" on the horrible roads on the way there. Every 2 km there's another "village" with like three houses and a speed radar camera enforcing a 50 km speed limit. When you aren't in a village you're stuck behind a tractor going 10 km. On that subject, how about changing the laws to: 1. get tractors and bicylces off the roads; 2. fix the roads; 3. get a real speed limit that doesn't frustrate the heck out of drivers who just rolled in from German autobahns

4. Alcoholsim and bums. Do something about the disgusting drunks that pick through the trash searching for aluminum cans and then vomit all over themselves.

5. Football hooligans. I just don't get it. It's not poland thing per se. It's all Europe. Somehow in Canada and the US we have sporting events all the time without riots, violence, and vandalism, which brings me to number 6

6. Grafitti is out of control. It makes every place I've been in Poland look ridiculous. Even in Warszawa when they finished redoing Nowy Swiat, within a week grafitti was reappearing.

7. Umm, the liberum veto destroyed Poland for 123 years. Why does it seem to still be in the culture. How many articles have I read about the one or two dzialki owners who hold out and prevent a major land development deal? When I lived in Warsaw I went to a tennat meeting once to discuss things like people dumping concrete in toilets, or drilling at midnight. I got out early and without raising either issue, because old people started screaming that there wasn't a quorum, or that they were being manipulated. It was a total Sh*t show.

8. How about painting and restuccoing buildings. I like Wroclaw but 3/4 of the city looks like it's 1945. I was just in Ladek Zdroj. That downtown looks straight up awful.

9. Learn to park, or build more parking garages. I'm staying in a brand new development at the moment. Somehow it was constructed with like one space per two apartments. Consequently there are cars all over the sidewalks and in the grass in a very typical Polish style. It might be convenient, but it makes tourists feel like you have no order here, which brings me to my final thing

10. Start respecting public and private property, and enforce adminstrative rules. Poland isn't nearly as corrupt or dangerous as a lot of ignorant westerners think. It's safe to the extent that I feel safe walking down the street at night. But the cops or 8 billion security guards seem totally useless when it comes to enforcing administrative rules. A very common saying by "authority" figure that I've come to know is "Nie mam taki mozliwosci" or "Nie mam taki competenji". I couldn't stand living here a few years ago because that was what train conductor's said when I asked them to enforce the basic smoking rules and compel people to stop smoking in train corridors. That was what building security guards said when my upstairs neighbors had techno parties until 5 in the morning for 3 days in a row.

Sorry if I sound angry. I'm in Poland for the first time in a couple of years at the moment, and I'm underwhelmed. While I admire the small business culture, and the continuing real estate development, the country is just way behind where they should be given their geographic location, strong economic performance, and access to EU money. It's about 1am and I can hear two drunks outside my window using their rich vocabularies of the word "Kurwa". And now they're picking through the trash. And as I look down at cars parked everywhere I notice that they're even blocking fire hydrants. Come on Poland, you could be such a great place if you'd tackle these mostly social issues that seem to revolve around a lack of enforcement of certain laws, a lack of organization, a lack of respect for public and private property, and what seems like a national commitment to maintain one of the worst rail networks and worst road networks around.

To summarize, Poland would be amazing for tourism if:

1. roads, rails, and building facades looked like they were from 2012 not 1945
2. Grafitti, vandalism, hooligansim, and public dunkedness were tackled
3. The Polish govt. did a much, much, much better job of promoting Poland and explaining Polish history.

Oh, one more thing. Five years ago I would never have been approached by prostitutes in the old town of a major Polish city. This time they seem to be all over the place. I noticed the same change in Prague a few years back. I would crack down on that. It looks cheap, tacky, and very Eastern European rather than Central European.

you nailed it.

the other thing I find particularly disappointing is that most cities simply dont have that much to do and see (except for Krakow). walking around the old town and drinking at some pub and visiting some church or god knows what other religious relic gets real boring real fast. every european city that is attractive to tourists has an "in" or a "reputation", most polish cities are quite bland when you consider what they can offer your average tourist. and the idea that poland needs more 5 star accommodation and "luxury" entertainment is laughable

so how does Poland achieve this change. Where did this "nie mam takiej mozliwosci" thing come from?
It can't be a hold-over from the PRL days can it?

Why would Poland WANT more tourists?

I like Mazury. I like the mountains. I like the wild, empty Bieszczady. I like cruising slowly along the ruined roads to stop for half an hour in a crumbling village where the waiter's teeth match the cobbles on the street outside.

I don't want this gorgeous, wild, natural place destroyed by Holiday Inns, Ryanair flights, boorish Western tourists saying "oh my GAWD that is like, oh my god, so so cute it's just simply so good to be here" while they sip coffee from another inevitable Starbucks.

It might bring money to otherwise poor areas, but increased tourism would devastate all the things I like about Poland. And considering all the negatives that makepolandgreat so correctly describes, it wouldn't leave many positive things behind.

I like it too. But that seems like utopia nowadays. :-)


Some things are getting better, slowly bit by bit. I'll give you one example.

I used to sail Masurian lakes at times where there were only few tourists, and most of them were experienced, polite and scout-like eco friendly.

Well, my last cruise there was a great disappointment to me: we picked up a place near Wilkasy Academic Center on Niegocin Lake as our place of crew rotation (I was a leader of a fleet of five Omegas and two Ramblers and we rotated our crews every two weeks). The amount of garbage, empty cans and excrement around that place was unbelievable. At the end of the season I swore to myself: Good bye Mazury, I will never see you again!

Well, apparently things are quite good on Masurian Lakes today, at least at some places. Last year a new super duper marina was opened In Giżycko, just few kilometers away from Wikasy:

See for example this video promotion: Ekomarina Giżycko: ekomarinagizycko.pl (in Polish).

Quite right. Anyone can have Hollywood teeth. The cobble effect makes a mouth more interesting, especially for dentists on holiday.


Each to his own, I suppose. Today I had to drive 30km on a back road that was more hole than tarmac.


I have to agree. I live in a beautiful but underdeveloped (tourist-wise) part of the country. This place needs jobs, but I'd rather see hard jobs, if you know what I mean, rather than waiters and guides.

Oh, many regions have more than enough to do and see, but for various reasons it simply doesn't work right now. I give you one example (because I worked there and know the area very well):

The Jelenia Gora valley had ~40 castles and manors, several very important English parks, resorts, cute villages whose surroundings faded into the parks, and the more impressive side of the Karkonosze. Since the 19th century the Prussian kings used the valley as their summer retreat, and in the 20th century it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in Germany, with direct connections to Berlin. The whole area most have been glorious. But now? The majority of the castles are either destroyed, run-down or not accessible, most parks don't exist anymore, the villages are run-down and the resorts lost their status to the Czech resorts on the other side of the border. Only the northern side of the Karkonosze is still more impressive. And the reasons?

1. most castles are still considered Prussian and German. The people don't see the castles as theirs, and there is no public conscientiousness to preserve them. Most villages have no idea what to do with them and mostly sold them to investors, which sometimes save them, and sometimes destroy them. And the authorities can do nothing against the latter, because the laws allow it that people can do with their property whatever they want, even if it's listed. And the most funny thing: although there are almost 40 more of less preserved castles (with parks), some of them by important artists like Schinkel, Stüler or Lenne, the castle the authorities care the most for is a tiny castle ruin (a ruin since at least 350 years) deep in the woods, which until now was almost unknown, inaccessible and far away from all tourist routes. This tiny castle ruin gets reconstructed now for several hundred thousand €uros, because it is one of the few buildings built when this part of the country was Polish in the early Middle Ages. In the same village is another castle from German times, which is art-historical actually important and was no ruin. This castle is owned by a Belgian, who tries to reconstruct it. He received exactly zilch from the authorities.

2. the parks were delisted in the PRL and, due to lack of care, destroyed. Today they belong to several villages who prefer to sell the land to people who build houses there. Often it's simply fallow land these days.

3. the cute villages are mostly run-down because only the old and poor live there, and they can't identify with houses which are clearly non-Polish. Richer people often build new houses which are often quite tasteless... huge, with turrets and walls, which don't follow the local building traditions and are scattered all over the countryside. The communities don't seem to have a land development plan, everyone can build whereever and whatever he wants.

4. the resorts are often more expensive than the Czech ones on the other side, but the Czech resorts are much cleaner, less chaotic, more relaxed, and the service is better. It's like the Polish communities thought that less regulation equals a better "product". But now they build a huge monstrosity in Karpacz which totally destroys the atmosphere of the place, there is ugly advertisement everywhere, everyone can do with his houses whatever he wants... it all feels so chaotic.

5. there are countless hiking trails in the mountains. The majority of them is in a bad shape on the Polish side. During German times the trails were maintained by volunteers who were organized in a club. In Czechia it's a mix of volunteers and professionals who work for the communities now, but in Poland it looks like no one cares.

I think Poland simply needs more regulation. The communities need land development plans, they need rules to limit all the adverts everywhere, they need concepts how to use their cultural heritage to stimulate tourism, they must work together, there must be superordinate structures to control these efforts etc.. And in this particular case the people have to accept the cultural heritage as theirs, although that's the most difficult part.

Give me 500Billion euro and they will be sorted. Easy, eh?

Wow. I love your passion and vision. Government needs people like you!
Start with your immediate neighborhood. Form a block association. Tackle all those problems in your immediate area. Maybe your passion will be contagious.
I wish I was your neighbor .

Post #44 nailed it.
It is one of the better posts I have ever read here.


This is very true, otherwise you have defeated the purpose of it all.
The Polish Government intentionally creates road blocks it seems with regulations that makes it impossible for the average joe to be successful in business.
It seems Poland is almost mafia controlled.
If the Polish people are not allowed to make money by investment idea's made easy and even supported by the government (including with foreigner business partners),

just where is the Polish Government going to collect tax money from to build and maintain modern infrastructure.


That is a must because if tourist don't feel safe with their children in any Country they will avoid it.
Are the consequences not harsh enough to discourage such activities in Poland ?
Incarcerated hooligans & recovering alcoholics make great road maintenance and road builders in exchange for room and board while they recover and start thinking and acting like a civilized individual in society.

I have endless ideas in how to make money and pay taxes in Poland which are all met with five years of filing papers and paying the government every step of the way not to mention the ridiculous regulations to even begin.

Seems the Polish Government discourages people to try and succeed instead of making Poland a place people want to invest to reap the fruits of their investments. IMO

No need to do anything. Or yes, one thing - develop the tourist facilities even more. The global warming and climate change will do the job, bringing tourists to Poland. Within a few years, traditional summer destinations in southern Europe will become unbearable for tourists from moderate climate areas. Poland will be hot in summer but not as hot as Greece or Italy or Spain. Currently, all these countries are troubled with extreme heat waves plus mass forest fires in the Greek island of Rhodos. In the future it will be even worse.

Can I recommend golden beaches at the Polish seaside?

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Llamas farm is a good idea. A very good idea, if I may say so.

How about an international advertising campaign on channels such as CNN and the BBC, under the title: "Visit Polish Concentration Camps".

For many years Poland has vainly fought against the use of the term "Polish Concentration Camps" in ignorant Western press, and yet the term persists. Why not turn this situation to your advantage and make use of the established brand recognition?

You are welcome.

No, it doesn`t persist. Its usages have become much rarer than before. A few a year, instead of dozens a year. So, the Polish educational campaign wasn`t it vain.

I believe you didn`t know about it so I won`t accuse you of spreading Kremlin antiWestern propaganda again. You can go free, learning the lesson. :):):)


This is already an important part of most itineraries in Poland. So, your idea is a bit late. :):)

WOW! LLammas are back. I hope trenerzowia will be back too!

AH, no?


That is great idea, after all all those americans pesants have to spare are money and ignorance.
Our tourist sector coul hit some big numbers. American Jews should have some discount.


Thank you Bobko for your input!

What is it? I don`t know this word.


No, that input about Auschwitz was poor.

Polish beaches are always very crowded and quite chaotic.

If Poland wants to attract a lot more people, it should focus heavier on eco stuff. People that are interested in Eastern Europe culturally, would probably rather go to Prague or Budapest - I don't know, just my opinion.

But if you advertise - "visit's Europe's oldest undisturbed forest" - that's something! When I tell my friends who know nothing about Poland that is a beautiful country in terms of its natural riches everyone is surprised. Everyone has some smokestacks and dilapidated industry in their mind.