Polish resorts bounce back from both war and pandemic

Poland’s hospitality and tourism industry has had plenty to contend with of late. Having bounced back spectacularly from the effects of the covid lockdowns, the war that Russia has waged on neighbouring Ukraine also took its toll, but now it is recovering from that too.

“During covid periods we had restrictions that meant people couldn’t travel in Poland, but after the restrictions were released, there was the best moment in the history of Poland in terms of rentals,” explained Marcin Dumania, CEO of vacation property management and development firm Sun & Snow.

“People were just very hungry to go to a different place than where they were living and to spend time doing things that they love to do,” he told Real Asset Media’s Richard Betts.

He said that once the covid restrictions were lifted holiday property was almost 100% occupied, he said.

The war in Ukraine had a profound effect on rental property in Poland.

“Firstly, there were lots of people from Ukraine coming to Poland so in bigger cities all the apartments were rented out to Ukrainian people,” Dumania said. “Polish people were trying to help. Everybody was helping, renting out their own apartments and even inviting Ukrainian people to live with them.”

But rents almost doubled in cities, while in tourist areas the market slowed as inflation made people more cautious. Nevertheless, foreign tourists, particularly from the Czech Republic, were attracted to Poland because the Zloty was weaker.

Dumania said that nowadays many tourists are travelling to the country’s resorts, each of which tends to attract different groups.

“So in the southern part, lots of people come from Czech Republic, lots of tourists come to the western part of Poland from Germany and in the northern part, from Scandinavia. The bigger cities like Krakow, Warsaw or Gdansk attract people from the UK, for example.”

Please click on the video above to watch the full interview or listen to the podcast below.