Changes in the Tourist Services Market in Poland in Regional Perspective

Abstract

The tourist services market in Poland, as in other countries, is constantly developing. Changes in its spatial arrangement are conditioned on the one hand by internal and external demand, and on the other by the development possibilities of individual regions. The aim of the study was to analyze changes in tourist traffic in a spatial and temporal layout with respect to Polish NUTS2 regions. The analyses were performed using data from the regional and local CSO data bank. In the research, tools in the field of statistical analysis were used. The results indicate that despite the apparent stable and sustainable development, in some voivodeships this process is faster and in some of them - Lubuskie - we can observe a drop in the number of tourists over the last years. There are also significant differences in seasonality between residents and non-residents and the frequency of visits in different regions. Polish coastal regions appear to be much more attractive to native tourists, as are ski areas in winter. Tourists from abroad visit large cities such as Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw and the surrounding area, which is the extension of the high season even until October.