The number of Czech tourists visiting Poland for their summer vacations has increased this year. Data from travel agencies and local governments show that tourists from the Czech Republic are flocking to Poland’s Baltic Sea beaches in particular.
The Czech portal for appointments, Slevomat, has recorded a 50 per cent increase in sales of stays in Poland compared to 2022.
Moreover, high interest in bookings for holidays in Poland has been shown through other agencies for travelling as well. Dovolena.cz is one of the agencies that, since January 2023, has recorded a 158 per cent increase concerning holidays in Poland.
Double the attention from Czech Republic visitors regarding their holidays in the Polish land has been noticed by the travel agency Invia as well, which is responsible for more than 150 Czech and foreign travel agencies.
The representative of Invia, Jiřina Ekrt Jirušková, has said for Forbes that Poland lures many foreign visitors because of historical monuments, cities, beautiful nature, sea, lakes and mountains.
She asserts that besides the attractiveness of the country, Poland has become popular due to its affordability as well. As of 2023, a one-week stay in Poland for one person in the nomad style costs €191,24, the budget travel goes up to €224,25, the mid-range travel about €341,28 and the luxury travel costs €736,24. Meanwhile, the accommodation, whether in a hotel room or in an apartment, is approximately €35 to €40 per night.
“Most services, whether it is accommodation, restaurants or entertainment attractions, are cheaper in Poland than [in Czechia],” Jirušková said.
Many tourists from the Czech Republic are travelling to Poland instead of their earlier holiday destination, Croatia, because of price increases, which aside from inflation, has been partially affected by Croatia switching from kuna to the Euro currency.
Poland’s seaside resort city of Sopot has turned out to become a favourite for Czech citizens.
“Already last year, Czechs were among the top three nationalities of tourists visiting tourist information points in Sopot during the holidays,” the head of the Sopot Tourist Organisation, Bartłomiej Barski, stated.
According to Barski, the increased number of Czech tourists is partly attributable to better transportation means, including the motorway that connects the two countries, through which Czech citizens can reach the Polish coast within a few hours.
In addition, Ryanair has been operating flights from Prague to Gdansk, a town near Sopot, since March.
Barski and others in Poland’s tourism industry are delighted with the rise in the number of travellers from the Czech Republic, calling it a very important market for the Polish tourism sector.
“We cannot just limit ourselves to the Germans or Scandinavians. Any new market that is interested in our region is welcome,” Barski said.
According to Statista, a German data-gathering platform, the biggest number of visitors in Poland in 2022 came from Germany (5,219,400), followed by Ukraine (3,462,000) and Belarus (734,900). Meanwhile, the biggest number of visitors from outside of Europe was from the United States (452,800).
Airport data on arrivals to the country have also confirmed the increase in travellers’ interest in visiting Poland, as it was reported that since January 2023, with over 6.5. million passengers recorded at Chopin airport in Poland. Chopin is the most crowded airport in Warsaw, where this year 63 per cent of the passengers travelled within the Schengen zone, while 37 per cent of passengers chose non-EU countries within the Schengen area.
