Poland's tourism picks up in 2022 - stats office

Tourism in Poland improved in the first half of this year as the country dropped Covid measures targeting the hospitality sector, data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS) show.

The number of tourists who stayed overnight in Poland in H1, 2022 rose by 177.1 percent year on year to over 14.7 million, GUS reported in a press statement published on Wednesday.

This figure includes 12.4 million domestic tourists (or 84.2 percent), and 2.3 million foreign tourists (or 15.8 percent), and according to GUS, it was respectively three and six times more than in the corresponding period of the last year.

GUS data also show that in the first six months of 2022 there were 37.5 million nights spent in tourist accommodation, which was 152.2 percent more than in the first half of 2021.

The bed occupancy rate in tourist lodgings in H1 came to 36.2 percent compared to 19.9 percent in the same period last year, GUS also said.

The highest occupancy rate was recorded in June 2022 when 3.5 million tourists spent nights in tourist accommodation. Compared to the previous year, this was a 54.3-percentage rise.

"The increase in the number of tourists and their overnight stays was largely due to the lack of restrictions on the functioning of accommodation facilities, which were in force in the first three months of last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic," GUS commented on the data.