Whether travellers are searching for a city break, active adventure or rural retreat, Poland has a destination for every traveller and an experience for every season, as promoted by the president of the Polish Tourism Organisation, Rafal Szlachta.
In Poland, travellers have a chance to immerse themselves in the bustling, UNESCO-protected Old Town of Krak?w, uncover secret street art in the hipster haven of Lodz, watch the sunset from the banks of the Vistula River on Warsaw?s urban beaches, explore ?the Venice of Poland?, Wroclaw, and its 12 separate islands by boat or relax in the urban park in Katowice that?s twice the size of Central Park.
Beyond its metropolitan city life, Poland boasts the Masurian Lake District - home to over 2,000 lakes with picturesque settings. Travellers can also explore 200 miles of Poland?s countryside by bike, or head to the seaside town of Sopot with its peaceful beaches just 20 minutes from the city of Gdansk.The Tatra Mountains offer some of Europe?s most underrated skiing and complete Poland?s portfolio as a complete holiday destination for year-round travel.
In a call with Travel Bulletin, Polish Tourism Organisation president, Rafal Szlachta, commented on plans to promote the region in the new year.
What are your plans for the new year? How does Poland want to promote itself as a destination?
"One thing we want to promote in the future is holidays surrounding the concept of social-distancing. We plan to promote nature, and areas that are away from mass tourism. In Poland we are lucky enough to have a lot of places like this, that are are both known and unknown - we are hoping to promote the lesser-known areas to travellers in the new year.
Another big concentration of ours will be adventure-tourism. Travellers want to walk, bike and run, among other activities, and we have a lot of places to promote as relevant to these interests.
On a personal level, I will try to advance the tourism organisation myself. I believe we can move faster and do a lot better - these days we have no clue what to expect tomorrow, so this is why we can't carry out such big plans anymore, we have to look for plans that are more adaptable. We have to be ready to promote our destination wherever possible, and we have to be prepared for all types of different scenarios. We know that we have a huge amount of travellers from the UK coming to Poland and we of course want to maintain and increase this base. The UK market is huge for us."
How are you planning on engaging the UK travel trade?
"Organising FAM trips for the UK travel trade has always played an important role in our marketing strategy, it will still very much be an area of concentration for us. FAM trips will resume as soon as it is possible - we know that these kind of holidays are best for promoting our country, so I'm already in discussions with my board of directors about future trips."
