COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES DIRECTORATE-GENERAL XXIII -TOURISM UNIT STUDIES TOURISM RESOURCES IN EASTERN EUROPE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATION Volume II: COUNTRY PROFILES "­-.. UJ UJ 0 DOCUMENT 1993 This document has been prepared for use within the Commission. It does not necessarily represent the Commission•s official position. Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1993 Volume II: ISBN 92-826-5978-X Volumes I and II: ISBN 92-826-5976-3 © ECSC-EEC-EAEC, Brussels • Luxembourg, 1993 Reproduction is authorized, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Belgium Commission of the European Comunities Directorate General XXIII- Tourism Unit TOURISM RESOURCES IN EASTERN EUROPE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATION Volume II: COUNTRY PROFILES PA CAMBRIDGE Economic Consultants 1993 3000 2000 1000 500 200 ~~o Elevation in metres BLACK SEA TouRISM REsouRcEs IN EASTERN EuROPE Poland Hungary ·Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia Bulgaria ~ 0 t-4 >z 0 Contents PART ONE: TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE IN POLAND 1 PART THREE: VISITOR ATIRACTIONS 16 1.1 Airports and Air Services 1 3.1 Introduction 16 Introduction 1 3.2 Cities and Historic Sites 16 Okecie Airport, Warsaw 1 Warsaw 16 Rebiechowo Airport, Gdansk. 3 Krakow 16 Balice Airport, Krakow 3 Czestochowa 16 Goleniow Airport, Szczedn 4 Gdansk 17 Lawica Airport, Poznan 4 Szczecin 17 1.2 Rail Services 5 Poznan 17 1.3 Road Access 5 Lublin 17 Private cars 5 To rum 17 Bus Services 6 Wroclaw 17 1.4 Telecommunications 8 3.3 Rural Areas and Activity Centres 17 1.5 Ports 9 Mountain Areas 17 The Rural North and East 18 PART TWO: HOTELS AND OTHER VISITOR 10 Other Activities 18 ACCOMMODATION 3.4 Festivals and Events 18 2.1 Introduction 10 PART FOUR: TOURISM ORGANISATION AND DEVELOPMENT 19 2.2 The 'Closed' Sector 10 2.3 The Hotel Sector 12 4.1 Tourism Organisation in Poland 19 2.4 Hostel Accommodation 14 4.2 State and Other Public Sector Enterprises 21 2.5 Private Rooms and Self Catering 14 4.3 Private Sector Tourism 22 2.6 Camping and Caravan Sites 14 4.4 National Tourism Development Programme 22 2.7 Closed Holiday Accommodation 15 4.5 Tourism Marketing 22 4.6 Financing Tourism Development 23 PART ONE: TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE IN POLAND 1.1 Airports and Air Services Table Ll Warsaw Airport: Principal Destinations Introduction Destination Weekly Bights Destination Weekly Bights 1.1.1 At present there are nine airports operating in Poland, seven of these are capable of servicing international flights, but only five provide regular Frankfurt 22 Dusseldorf 6 international services. In order of importance and volume of traffic they are: Moscow 20 Amsterdam 6 Warsaw Gdansk London 19 Milan 5 Krakow International Scheduled Services Budapest 14 Helsinki 5 Szczecin Posnan Charters and international links via Warsaw Vienna 14 Belgrade 5 The principal destinations and frequency of services are shown in Table 1.1 and Paris 12 Oslo 4 the airport locations are shown in Map 1.1. Stockholm 12 Athens 4 Okecie Airport, Warsaw Zurich 11 Geneva 4 New York 10 4 1.1.2 This is the principal international airport and accounts for 90% of all Bucharest international arrivals and departures. It has all of the services and facilities Prague 9 Tel Aviv 4 expected of a modem international airport including aircraft maintenance and fuelling, international airtrafficcontrol, (ILC) duty free area, bars and restaurants, Berlin 9 Madrid 3 tourist information and exchange office. Also available are the offices of most of the major international airlines, rent-a-car facilities and hotel and tour Brussels 7 Lyon 3 operators. Rome 7 Bangkok 2 Hamburg 7 Beijing 1 Leningrad 6 Poland -1 TOURISM RESOURCES IN EASTERN EUROPE Map 1.1 \ \\ '·;> \ J \ /.,· International ..,. airports / / ·' _,, Motorway L. / Principal road 0 200 -·-·- International kilometres boundary Poland -2 POLAND 1.1.3 Located only 10 km from central Warsaw surface access to local destinations is fast and relatively cheap. Buses are only $0.5 and taxis about Table 1.2 Gdansk Airport: Princi_I!_al Connections $10.00. A local travel group, Air Tours, provides a frequent service to all city centre destinations by Mercedes for $18.00 and can provide a small bus for Destination No. of Weekly Flights groups for $30.00. Some hotels including the Mariott and Holiday Inn also provide courtesy cars. Hamburg 4 1.1.4 All eight operational airports within Poland can be reached from Okecie Warsaw 3 (per day) and with the main rail station only 15-20 minutes away, access to other Polish regions and cities is good. The airport is open day and night all year round, London 2 although the volume of winter traffic is only about 70% of that of the summer months. Leningrad 1 1.1.5 The airtraffic control system is modem and efficient and with two Helsinki 1 (summer only) runways of 3690m the theoretical capacity is more than 3 times current levels. The constraining factors are passenger servicing and handling facilities, both of which could be overcome by a relatively small amount of investment in the two 1.1.8 All of the basic services, for both aircraft and passengers, are available existing terminals. at Rebiechowo, with the exception of a duty free shop. Generally the airport operates day flights only and winter traffic is about 50% of the summer peak. Rebiechowo Airport, Gdansk. There is a single terminal and the runway, at 2800m, is long enough to accommodate the largest passenger aircraft including the Boeing 767. With 1.1.6 Like Warsaw, Gdansk airport is conveniently located close to the city, some limited investment the airport could be improved significantly and has the about 14km, and the journey takes between 20 and 30 minutes by train, bus or potential to handle substantially more traffic than it does at present. taxi. The airport gives visitors easy access to the seaside towns at Sopot and Gdynia on the nearby Baltic Coast, to the Kaszubian lake region some 40km away and to Malbork 60km, Franbork 100km and Torun 185km. Access to Balice Airport, Krakow Helsinki and Stockholm is also easy, only some 35-40 minutes flying time away by air taxi. 1.1.9 Althoughi<rakowairporthandlesslightlymoreintemationalpassengers than Gdansk (58,000) the overall volume of traffic is about 30% less. It is used 1.1.7 In comparison to Okecie, Gdansk airport handles only a very small frequently during the summer for direct charter flights from the USA but these number of passengers, 118,000 in 1990 of which 54,000 were international. cease during the winter. However, the year round connections to Warsaw and Details of the frequency of flights to international destinations is as follows in to major European airports are relatively good: the destinations and frequencies Table 1.2. are shown in Table 1.3 below: Poland-3 TOURISM RESOURCES IN EASTERN EUROPE 1.1.12 Surface links to the main cities of Krakow and Katowice are available. Table 1.3 Krakow A~ort: Principal Connections Buses are the cheapest and most frequent mode. Good rail services operate between Krakow and Katowice and both bus and rail services give access to Destination No. of Weekly Flights• Zakopaneand the high Tatrasand to important tourist destinations at Wieliezka (Salbnines) and Oswiecim (Auschwitz) London 3 Cologne/Bonn 2 Goleniow Airport, Szczecin Frankfurt 2 1.1.13 The airport at Szczecin is comparatively small, even by regional airport standards in Poland. Of its total throughput of 19,000 passengers per year only Rome 2 about 1000 are international. It does provide access to the north and west of Poland including sea and spa tourist destinations and to Swinoujscie and the Vienna 2 ferry service to Sweden. Paris 1 1.1.14 The only regular international flight is to London on a weekly basis and services to Warsaw. Its aircraft and passenger services facilities are small and *There are also 3 flights per day to Warsaw would need to be substantially improved if utilisation of the airport is to be increased. There is an adequate runway however, 2500m, and at 45km from the City of Szczecin there are few environmental constraints on expansion. Bus services are available direct to Szczecin and to Swinoujscie and Kolobrzeg. 1.1.10 Balice is located 18km from the historic city of Kracow and about 60km from the densely populated industrial areas around Katowice. The generally Lawica Airport, Poznan poor facilities at the airport and the lack of an international airport serving Katowice have prompted consideration of the development of a new facility, 1.1.15 Lawica is located only 7km from the centre of Poznan, where a number perhaps located mid-way between the two areas and serving the whole of the of international fairs are held. It handles some 21,000 passengers annually, 30% south of Poland. of whom are international. Charter flights operate from Europe and from the USA and there is a regular daily service to Warsaw. 1.1.11 Aircraft and passenger facilities are adequate at Balice, but without a dutyfreeareaanda verylimitedamountofcatering,considerableimprovements 1.1.16 Like other regional airports in Poland, aircraft services are adequate and will be required if it is to be utilised to a greater extent. It is partly the high level international airtraffic control systems (ILC) operate, the passenger services are of capital investment needed for upgrading which has prompted consideration not well developed. Lawica has no duty free, no tourist information and only of the development of a wholly new airport. a small cafeteria. It can, however, handle large passenger aircraft on its 2500m runway.