Strategy for Polish tourism. Work on the key document is underway

• We talked to the President of POT during the 17th European Economic Congress in Katowice.
• As Rafał Szmytke points out, the Polish tourism strategy is a document that has been missing for years, and which is to become a binder and guide for regions and tourist organizations.
• The strategy is also intended to help achieve the goal of increasing tourism's share of GDP. Currently, Poland's share is 5%, while the EU average is 9%.

2025 is to be a year of intensive work on the Polish strategy for tourism. The document is to be a guide for regions and tourist organizations.

- If we don't know where we want to go, any road is good - the proverb goes. For several years now, there has been no strategy related to tourism at the government level, and yet tourism is a very important sector of the Polish economy - says Rafał Szmytke, president of POT, in an interview with Portal Samorządowy.

As he points out, the Polish tourism strategy is a document expected both locally, regionally and at the national level.

- Most nationwide tourism organizations expect this document and even lack it to be able to include their activities and development directions in this strategic document - continues Szmytke.

He also expresses hope that the document will be widely consulted with other government ministries.

Let's remember that we are talking about tourism, which is a form of export - so by inviting foreign tourists to Poland, we create export. It looks similar at the regional level

- he adds.

As he points out, it is important for the local and regional tourist product to become an element that fits into the mainstream of the Polish tourist product.

- Therefore, such a "paper clip" in the form of a national tourism strategy is extremely important, needed and expected by all stakeholders related to this topic - says the president of POT.

He assures that although the Polish Tourism Organisation already has its own strategy, it will be adapted to the central document. It will be similar in the case of voivodeships, which have developed their own tourist guidelines without waiting for the government to act. These regions will have less work to do.

- The main strategy will also draw from these sources - explains our interlocutor.

The strategy is also intended to help achieve the goal of increasing tourism's share of GDP. Currently, Poland's share is 5%, while the EU average is 9%.

- Without this strategy, thinking about achieving the European average will be very difficult - not to say impossible. However, having this document, we can set ourselves an even more ambitious goal. Our potential as a country - geopolitical, natural and cultural conditions - should motivate us to exceed this average - sums up Szmytke.