Tourist hotspot?!

Warsaw at last appears to be recovering from the global slumpgwałtowny spadek in tourism, as visitors here are increasingly finding that Poland's rough capital has a lot more to offer than they initiallypoczątkowo imagined.

A group of wealthily dressed middle-aged Japanese stand smartly to attention in Nowe Miasto while a kind hearted passer-byprzechodzień captures their beaming pose on camera. Out of shot a German family wait patiently for their digital moment outside the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum. This evening scene on ul. Freta will not surprise many Varsovians but to an increasing number of visitors the city is proving to be a major discovery. The tourists are now back in force after the big slumpgwałtowny spadek in the wake ofw ślad za the September 11 terrorist attacks, the SARS scares and the War in Iraq. Figures for the first few months of the year show a dramatic rise in trips made to Poland and while data for the summer period has yet to be compiledto compile: zestawiać, early indicationsindication: oznaka suggest there may be as many as 15 percent more visitors to the city than last year. Unofficial sources suggest that figures from LOT confirm this growth, with an increase of around 13.5 percent traffic compared to this time last year. Research by the Institute of Tourism, meanwhile, reveals that in the first quarter of 2004 there were 16.5 million border crossings to Poland - an increase of 22.1 percent on the January to April period of 2003 and 14.7 percent more than in the same period in 2002. Last year there were 52.1 million arrivals in the country, 13.7 million of which were traditional and business tourists staying more than one night and 38.4 million that were one day cross-border shopping trips. Industry professionals believe this growth is being strongly driven by the explosion in availabilitydostępność of low-cost air travel. The Institute's specialist, Tom Dziedzic, says those budget travellers are increasingly flying in for short visits, providing a valuable income for hotels at weekends.

Low cost boom
"Our data is compiled from field research drawn from across the country so we can look at the picture both in Warsaw and the general situation in Poland," explains Dziedzic. "We will have the figures for the early summer period - the second quarter of the year effectively - in two months time. But from the initial indicationsindication: oznaka we expect some growth - in the region of 10 to 15 percent." Dziedzic believes there are three main factorsfactor: czynnik contributingto contribute: przyczyniać się to the resurgenceodrodzenie in tourism. "I think growth would be the result of several major influences. One is the effect of integration that is bringing both tourists and business people here. Secondly, there is the influence of low-cost carriers which in my opinion are a very significantistotny ingredientskładnik. Thirdly, it may be that the exchange rate between the euro and the zloty is a factor."

Financial benefits
Dziedzic emphasizes the financial significanceznaczenie of this new group of weekend visitor. "The part the low-cost airlines play is very important because of the type of visitors they are bringing to Poland. We are seeing weekend visitors who are especially important because they use accommodation on Saturdays and Sundays when hotels are mostly empty. Therefore they are very important for the tourism business. This is the case both for Warsaw and Poland in general," Dziedzic concludesconclude: wnioskować. And this feeling of optimism is echoedto echo: odbijać się echem by the airlines. Confidence is riding so high that Air Polonia, which has yet to celebrate its first anniversaryrocznica, is planning to open up two more routes to Britain shortly - probably targeting the Midlands and Bradford, in the north of England. By wintertime the fledgling airline predictsto predict: przewidywać that it will be the number one carrier between the UK and Poland, offering more seats than LOT or British Airways, with 30 flights per week. Air Polonia's sales director, Marek Slawatyniec, says ticket sales are very strong. "I am aware that tourism in Warsaw is growing and I think this is mainly because of the low-cost airlines. The low prices on offer have proved very attractive and from our point of view this has been very good for business," he comments. "At the moment, when you consider the company's London service, we are talking about a 100 percent seat capacitywydajność and in July and the early part of August we exceeded 85 percent of seat bookings. Of course because we have only been operating since very late last year we have no year-on-year comparisons, however, we are very happy with the results." On the home front the airline is planning to open up more new routes from Szczecin by the sea and Bydgoszcz in the central region.

Air expansion
Slawatyniec believes Air Polonia is reapingto reap: zbierać plony the rewards of establishing themselves on the Polish market before the domestickrajowy low-cost rush. "I know from the airports that our levels of bookings are much better than, say, Wizz Air's or Sky Europe's. But generally I suppose the low-cost industry now has more seats available to passengers say from London and Paris and those seats are filled. "It is important to note that we have people travelling both ways and this is an optimistic sign." While Warsaw is benefiting from the budget travel boom, there are many figures in the tourism industry who believe the capital must do more to market itself as a destination. Concerns about the promotion of Poland abroad as a destination led to the formation of the Warsaw Destination Alliance. Made up of 11 hotels from the international chainshotel chains: hotele zrzeszone/sieci hoteli and just 14 months old, the group in association with other businesses and local government has already organized a slick, €400,000 advertising campaign on both the BBC and CNN International. The alliancesojusz's chairman and the general manager of the InterContinental, Alex Kloszewski, explains the scale of the group's challenge: "When you compete against the Pragues, Budapests and Berlins, they are a lot more organized." But he says the alliancesojusz has identified the areas it wants to address - targeting tourists with the "Let's Warsaw Together" advert, preparing tie-in shopping/hotel packages for visitors and promoting the cause of medium-sized conference facilities to attract major European groups and companies. "I think the natural progression of tourism in Warsaw is always going to be business related, especially now that we have joined the European Union," he says. "Out of the 500 main international companies we only have 175 doing business in Poland so certainly there is room for a lot more growth. "The alliancesojusz is lobbying the government to help us with building a multi-use conference center so that we start attracting the medium-sized pan-European conferences of the order of 7,000 to 8,000 delegatesdelegate: delegat. We want to be a player in this field because Budapest has certainly done a great job, while Prague, Vienna and Berlin all attract this business and we need to as well.

Bringing in business
"We see also the traffic of business-related travel increasing in relation to the kind of infrastructure, agricultural, modernization and manufacturing work that has to be done. All this is very important to our business." Kloszewski outlines one of the deals they are currently putting together for the short-stay traveller: "We are now in the process of talking to all the major shopping galleries - Blue City, Promenada, Arkadia and Galeria Centrum, with the idea of putting a shopping product together that caters to the weekend business with the discount airlines. The idea is that it becomes a call to action program where people fly over here, stay with us and shop here." Kloszewski says the group is also in talks to promote more cultural and music festivals in the city. "I would like to see one festival a month being held in Warsaw. We can then package these and promote them and we are now working on putting those ideas together. I would like to see this city called the 'City of Festivals.'" Detailing his ultimate goalcel, he says: "Time magazine just this week came up with the star cities around the world and I have a vision that someday we will be declared a star city - it is possible if we work together." But perhaps the final word should go to one of the city's growing number of tourists. Emico Saito, 34, from Tokyo, who is spending four days here as part of a Japanese tour, says Poland was a big surprise for her. "We have been to Prague and I have seen some of the historic cities of Europe before. But this is the first time I have been to Poland. I didn't know it was so beautiful."

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