B.

A International Hospitality & Tourism Management

ITM-IHM, NAVI MUMBAI

Tourism and Developing Countries

2014– 2015

Module code - B-3141

Module co-coordinator - Ketan Chande

Matriculation Number -14010377

WORD COUNT – 2,163

 From over the past years competition became more intense among tourist
destinations. Investments in infrastructure for tourism, growth of the new tourist destinations and
products, introducing new tourism attractions are the characteristics elements of today’s tourism
industry (Johann, 2014). Poland is not perceived as a typical tourist destination; according to
Johann, due to the investments in tourist infrastructure, its cultural heritage and other changes
related to the accession to the European Union, Poland has become the country which offers
many opportunities for business and individual travelers. But, the perceptions of Poland as
traditional and agricultural country, connotations with World War 2, concentration camps, and
Eastern Block have an impact on the image of Poland as tourist destination. The change of the
image and attracting more tourists requires much more effort put in the promotional activities
adapted to the various markets. Poland is situated in the centre of European continent. Poland
has various tourist attractions which includes sandy beaches, mountain ranges, and
Carpathians tower etc. Poland became a special charm because of its beautiful forests, lakes,
and rivers (Piotrowski and Solinski, 2010). Rural and Agritourism is the main part of Poland’s
inbound tourism. By the year of 2013, The Ministry of Economy started promoting medical
tourism internationally with help of European Union. This promotional activity increases the
inbound tourism for medical purpose. Reason behind selecting this country for writing an essay
is, the country has various tourist attractions and from them many of are still developing to
increase more inbound tourism.

Poland faced the decreased number of tourist arrivals by 3% in 2013, although the
Year 2012 was the fantastic year for Poland in terms of inbound tourism. Poland was co-host of
the famous football event which known as UEFA EURO Champions League 2012. The year
2012 was comparatively best year among other years; because of the growth of inbound tourist
arrival. It was increased by 11% of the football fans, who came to watch their favorite football
players, teams, and to do support them. In year of 2013 there was no direct decline in the
inbound tourism; it was just a coming back to normal level after a huge increase in tourist arrival
because of UEFA Euro Champions League 2012 (msp.gov.pl, 2012). This economic crisis have
made many losses for Poland, but the country was still set to make better trips and tourism for
surrounding countries located in European continent. Because of the nearest country as well as
shared border, Germany is the preferred location for inbound tourism arrival to Poland in all the
seasons, which makes transportation relatively cheaper (Polish Press Agency, 2012). Poland is
well known for various types of tourism. Rural tourism, and one of its core segments, which is
Agritourism, has become well established on the domestic tourist market (Strzembicki, 2002).
Poland’s outbound tourism is market is not yet developed the maturity as compare to the other
European Union Economies. The opportunities for outbound tourism have been grabbed upon
by Poland’s citizens, as their economy has become more advanced. In the year of May 2004,
Poland became a member of European Union; this step gave Poland a biggest lift to outbound
travelling for Polish citizens, and the second most important advantage for Poland was, the
foreign travel and tourism agencies and companies as well as the foreign countries airlines got
access to polish markets. The new forth aviation brands have Polish low-cost carrier brought in
the year of 2004; they offered Poles air travel at the low prices they not seen before. The
regional airports which are central are making the air transport and traveling most reachable to
polish population. The cheaper deals and package holidays are developed in between the year
of 2005-10, has attracted more polish to abroad. Mostly Polish first generation travelers are
interested in mainstream sun and beach holidays. They generally have higher incomes and
often travel in couples.

Tourism is the world’s most favorable largest and most important industry. It is
comparatively important for source of income in various regions, and for others it is an economic
growth to develop their nation. In the developing countries rural areas are enlarging at rapidly
and their major income came from the rural tourism only. The local developers and World
Tourism Organization motivates to development of the tourism sector; others denounce this
sector use as an implement for expansion in poor regions. Core-periphery framework is
frequently used by critics to understand the huge leakages and external controls often outcome
of the targeted area which remaining under growing in spite of large expenditure by tourists. In
the tourism studies Chaos and Complexity theories were used many times, especially aspects
and incident recognized for being chaotic. In this theory unexpected results and points to the
impractical of long term forecast clarifications is provided. Various approaches have been given
in different disciplinary fields, that’s why is tremendously tough to indentify one complexity
theory (Medd 2001, and Mitleton-kelly, 1998). According to Mckercher (1999), A composite
range of attractions are chaotic non stable and non linear are the characterizations of tourism.
For tourism sector the indication is that they can materialize to progress in stable and
foreseeable over the longer session of time, unless and until it activate initiates a period of
chaotic disruption manner where in non linear relationships controls. In some parts of the
tourism sectors knowledge is very much flourish but that there is a bit understanding of the
relationship and attractions between these tourism sectors, is the rational approach and
dominance of ‘Newtonian’ (Twining-Ward and Farrell 2004).

According to WTO, the definition for tourism sustainable development is, give a
proper protection as well as make opportunities pertaining to the future demand and supply of
tourist arrival. But also make sure to give proper value for money services to the present tourist.
It is predicted as key to management of all the supply in such a part that aesthetic, social, and
economical needs can be fulfilled at the time of maintaining life support systems, essential of
ecological processes, cultural integrity, and biological diversity (Report of EC, 2009). The effects
of sustainability in tourism can be considered from different points of view. The sustainability
principles refers to the economical, socio-cultural, and environmental features and
characteristics of the tourism development, and a manageable as well as acceptable balance is
has to be established and followed in between those three different extent to assurance its long
term sustainability (WTO, 2004). Poland is mainly known for its sports tourism, cultural heritage
tourism wine tourism, and historical tourism which are related to world wars. Cultural tourism is
the most developed type of tourism in Poland. The ministry of culture and National Heritage of
Poland performs tasks related to the cultural heritage of the Operational Program Infrastructure
and Environment, whose main objective is to increase the attractiveness of Poland through in
culture to increase more and more inbound tourism and to also increase the carrying capacity of
the country.
 According to Mlynarczyk (2002), the environmental impacts both positive and
negative of rural or cultural tourism are equal. This tourism is largely based and depended on
attractive natural environment and landscapes. Tourism in rural areas is a generator of
employment and additional income for rural families. Rural tourism encourages rational use of
the available resources contributing to preservation of heritage and conservation of natural
environment. The Polish people have changed their social life with economic benefits and they
improved their standard life. They reduce out migration and they also facilitate transfer of new
ideas from urban to rural areas and strengthen regional identity. As regards negative impacts, in
the countryside area tourism changes use of arable lands, degrades the nature and implicates
the harmony of rural landscape. It endangers the authenticity of local community traditions or
customs and it also disturbs the rural family privacy. Sometimes it causes spread of pathological
behaviors. These impacts are based on tourism activities as well as both good and bad
impression which is maintain by tourists (Mlynarczyk, 2002).

Rural tourism and agritourism are not totally new in Polish people. Rural tourism
and agritourism develop in a space, which can be described as the rural tourism or agritourism
space. The diversification of the economy of rural areas to other sectors than agriculture is
progressing. It is extremely important, as because rural areas in Europe represent 92% of the
territory and 56% of the population (Rural Development in the EU, 2006). According to Meyer
(2008), tourist space is isolated according to the functionality criterion, and it is part of the
economic space where tourism has developed (Plocka, 2009). Polish rural areas, especially in
those which are attractive due to their natural and scenic values and rural tourism became a
part of the country’s national policy to support rural families adjusting to changing resulting from
economic restructuring (Roberts and Hall, 2001). According to the Central Statistical Office in
2011, the base of agritourism lodgings and guest rooms included 22.8 thousand entities with
total of 309.1 thousand sleeping accommodations, including 7.8 thousand agritourism lodging
with 82.7 thousand beds and 15.0 thousand guestrooms with 226.4 thousand beds in 2011-
2012. According to the estimates made by the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in
the year of 1993 there were about 100 agritourism farms available and by 2011 this numbers
increased to 7,852 and it proves that agritourism is developing at a relatively rapid tempo in
Poland (Statistical yearbook of Poland, 2011).

From 25th October of 2013, all EU Members have been obliged to adopt the laws
implementing Directive 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of the 9 March
2011. The primary objective of this Directive is to ensure that EU member have the freedom to
provide cross-border healthcare services and to establish rules for facilitating access to these
services. Within a short period of time, Poland has become a major health destination. Poland’s
healthcare has been experiencing growing interest from foreign patients. Tourist started going in
Poland for many reasons and they also attracted by the high quality health services, state of the
art clinics, medical technologies, highly qualified multilingual medical staff, short waiting times in
private clinics, and also by the relatively low costs of procedures (Skowron and Sak-Skowron,
2014). While the Directive opens up new growth possibilities for Polish providers, it also
generates a number of legislation, promotional, informational, and procedural challenges. Being
aware of the opportunities offered by the medical tourism market, both health service providers
and state institutes work on promoting awareness among foreign patients and insurers with
regard to the qualitative potential of healthcare in Poland to encourage them to use the Health
services there, that’s how the Polish medical tourism marketing done and they face their
challenges and came with an effective outcome. They are also making efforts to engage in
cooperation with foreign insurance companies. The Ministry of Economy have identified medical
tourism as one of fifteen was launched with a view to promoting Poland internationally as a
country that is appealing not only as a tourist, but also as a medical destination. All the
promotional activities have been pursued under the slogan of Poland, “Your Health Destination”,
whose aim is to create the brand of medical tourism in Poland, not only as far as medical
treatment goes, but also with regards to health resorts, spas and wellness centers (Poland
medical tourism, 2013). The state authorities were also joined in their promotional efforts by
Polish airline PLL LOT, which now provides discounts to all passengers who can prove that they
travel to Poland for medical purpose.

In growing a monitoring and estimating arrangements for the tourism sector,

stipulates such as the share of tourism in GDP, there are also inbound and outbound tourism as
well as foreign expenditure are monitored in Poland. In the year of 2013 tourist arrival from
outside is lesser as compare to year 2012. This decrease was happened because of UEFA
EURO LEAGUE 2012. But this was not decline in the inbound tourism for the Polish tourism;
this is a returning from the strong increased record to normal level. This shows that Poland’s
sports tourism is the biggest factor behind the inbound tourism. The Ministry of Culture and
National Heritage taking initiatives to make infrastructure and environment to increase the
attractiveness of Poland through this they want to increase the inbound tourism. In Poland rural
area is also a part of the tourism industry, in recent years Poland placed a magnificent role to
promoting the cultural and heritage areas in rural areas. Poland’s agro-tourism farms and
country side views are the main attraction for foreign tourist in the agritourism. Outbound
tourism of the Poland is increasing because of their membership with European Union. The
Ministry of Economy has identified the growth of medical tourism in Poland, so they started
promoting it internationally to gain more inbound tourism. By analyzing the data and information
of Poland’s Tourism industry, this is clearly showing that inbound tourism is increased more as
compare to outbound tourism.
References:

B., Mckercher. 1999. Tourism Management. A Chaos Approach to Torism., pp.425-434.

B., Meyer. 2008. Shaping space-function strutures to tourism. Szczecin.

E., Mitleton-Kelly. 1998. Organizations as Complex Evolving Systems. In: Oaces Conference.
Warwick.

EC. 2009. Enterprise and Industry Tourism- Brussells: Tourism and Employement.

ECONOMY, Ministry of. 2011. Communication on the run trade promotion program for medical
tourism. Poland.

EU. 2006. Statistical and Economic Information. Luxembourg.

EU. 2011. European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 of the application of
patient's rights in cross-border healthcare. 54.

FARRELL B., Twining-Ward L. 2004. Tourism. Reconceptualizing Toursim Annals of Tourism

Research., pp.274-295.

G., Britton S. 1982. Annals of Tourism. The Political Economy of Tourism in the Third World.,
pp.331-358.

I., Kapoor. 2002. Dependency versus postcolonial theory. Capitalism, Culture, Agency:
Dependency versus Postcolonial theory. third world quarterly., pp.647-664.

JOHANN, Maria. 2014. Hospitality and Tourism. Poland European Journal of Tourism,
Hospitality and Recreation., pp.143-161.

K., Mlynarczyk. 2002. Agritourism. Olsztyn.

L., Strzembicki. 2002. Diiferentials will keep buyers in regional markets, agro-tourism.
Agroekoturystyka opportunities multificational rural development, "Powitne" Pska., pp.15-28.

Ministry of Health. Poland, 2013. The draft guidelines draft law amending the Act of 27 August
2004 on health care services financed from public funds and the Act of 15 April 2011 on medical
activity (in relation to the transposition of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the
Council No 2011/24 on application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare). Draft Act of 7
February 2013

MSP.GOV.PL. 2012. Economic News. [online]. [Accessed Mar 2015]. Available from World
Wide Web: <http://msp.gov.pl/en/polish-economy/economic-news/3574>

OFFICE, Central Statistical. 2012. Statistical Information and Elaboration. Warsaw.

PLOCKA. 2009. Selected aspect of tourism development, The chosen issue of tourism
infrastructure. Torun.

POLAND, Statistical yearbook of. Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development. [online].
[Accessed Mar 2015]. Available from World Wide Web:
<http://stat.gov.pl/bdlen/app/strona.html?p_name=indeks>

R., Packenham. 1992. The Dependency movement: Scholarship and politics in development
studies. Cambridge.

ROBERTS L., Hall D.(Eds). 2001. Rural Tourism and Recreation: Principles to Pratice.
Wallingford.

SAK-SKOWRON, Łukasz Skowron and Monika. 2014. Global Micro Trends. The Macrotheme
Review: A multidisciplinary journal of global macro trends.

SOLINSKI, Maciej Piotrowski and Tomasz. 2010. Regional tourism report: Analysis of the
situation of SMEs in tourism sector in Malopolska and Podkarpacki Regions. Rzeszow.

TOURISM, Poland Medical. 2013. [online]. [Accessed Mar 2015]. Available from World Wide
Web: <http://www.polandmedicaltourism.com/who-we-are.html >

TOURISM, Poland Medical. 2013. [online]. [Accessed Mar 2015]. Available from World Wide
Web: <http://www.polandmedicaltourism.com/23.htm>

W., Medd. 2001. Complexity. Complexity and the Policy process.

WTO. 2009. Sustainable Development of Tourism Conceptual Definition. [online]. [Accessed

Mar 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.world-
tourism.org/frameset/frame_sustainable.html >