Come for business too
As the city of 260,000, located on the main road linking Warsaw and Katowice, struggles to transform itself into a Polish mecca for religious tourists, developers like Global are looking past the miraculous "Black Madonna" picture. Instead, they are taking note of industrial companies such as BOC Gazy and TRW Poland, fast-food services such as McDonald's and Pizza Hut, and entertainment developers such as Portico Development and Atomic Entertainment.
Those companies are the future of Czestochowa for Global, which intends to spend $9 million to build in the center of Czestochowa one of 20 Holiday Inns it plans to develop around Poland.
"(Pilgrims) come for one day and don't even sleep there. You can't count them," said Maciej Herbich, Global Hotels Development Group Polska's managing director. "We are especially looking for business travelers."
Czestochowa city officials, on the other hand, have a somewhat different vision. They believe that the city's future lies not so much in industry and commerce, but in the 4 to 5 million visitors who annually make their way up Czestochowa's main boulevard to pray at the sacred Jasna Gora, said Halina Rozpondek, mayor of Czestochowa.
"Czestochowa is called the spiritual capital of Poland," Rozpondek said. "Our dream and our strategic plan is to make Czestochowa into a Polish-wide and European-wide pilgrimage site."
Business leaders agree that the city has enormous tourism potential, but emphasize that there's more to Czestochowa than the Black Madonna.
"Knowing how important this city is for Poles, how many tourists there are, was the background for this (investment)," said Krzysztof Klapa, public relations director for McDonald's in Poland, which has invested $2.3 million in Czestochowa. "But it's also based on the residents. They spend good money there."
McDonald's has invested in three Czestochowa restaurants since 1993, with two on the Warsaw-Katowice highway and one in the center of the city near the pilgrimage route to Jasna Gora, Klapa said.
The city's relatively large population, its location on the Warsaw-Katowice highway and its industrial base are all enough to make Poland's spiritual capital a worthy home for capital investments, Klapa said.
"It is for sure a McDonald's success," Klapa said. "It's really a tiger on our list."
More recently, the city and its surroundings have attracted attention from entertainment developers such as Atomic Entertainment, which intends to put a bowling center in the city, and Portico, which plans to build a 10-screen movie theater combined with approximately 5,000 square meters of retail space.
"It's a big voivodship, that's what we're looking at," said Vinton Frost, Portico's chief executive officer, adding that about 1 million people live in Czestochowa and the surrounding region. "I'm impressed by the number of people that are walking the streets, particularly on weekends."
Almost 40% of the city's residents are employed in industry, with Huta Czestochowa steel mill employing around 6,000 of them. The town's 6.4% unemployment is 3% below the national average.
While Frost could not estimate the cost of the Czestochowa investment, it is comparable in size to one in Gdynia, which will cost $20 million, and larger than one planned for Wroclaw, likely to cost $15 million, he said.
Portico hopes that its investment will attract both family and youth from the city and outlying areas, but some aspects of the venture could cater to pilgrims, Frost said.
"The fact that this is such an important religious place is good for the economy," Frost said. "Hopefully (pilgrims) will come to the food court."
The city hopes its vision will mesh with that of companies like Portico if the city becomes a tourism empire, Czestochowa's Rozpondek said.
Global Hotels, while interested in capturing Czestochowa's business travelers, could prove essential in the city's plan for roping in tourists as well, Rozpondek said. An increase in high-standard accommodation would mean longer pilgrimages and more consumer spending, Rozpondek said.
"(Pilgrims) leave some money on food, on coffee and on buses," Rozpondek said, adding that the average stay lasts only several hours. "But they come to pray and then they go home.
"They could have more influence if we had hotels," he added. "This is the biggest source of pain for Czestochowa."
But many businesses aren't so sure. And with only 3-5% of pilgrims coming from abroad, breaking the mold of day trips and occasional overnight stays in Czestochowa will be difficult, admitted Ryszard Zabiello, Czestochowa's section manager for the department of economic initiatives and development.
Even if Czestochowa businesses find that local residents make a fair clientele, there is no counting on the patronage of pilgrims, said Juan Hernandez Towar, chairman of the board at the Italy-based Cafe Vecchia Milano, located on Czestochowa's main street leading up to Jasna Gora.
"This establishment exists thanks to Czestochowa residents, not tourists," Towar said. "Tourists only go to Jasna Gora, they don't walk around Czestochowa."
The reason tourists don't venture around the town is not for a lack of time or hotel space, said peddlers of religious goods on Jasna Gora, but a lack of cash. "People don't have money," said Hanina Rudek, a 70-year-old retiree who has sold beads and religious pictures from an outdoor stall on the hill for three years. "Every year is worse."
"I earn enough for potatoes and coal," Rudek said, adding that she is retiring from the trade after this year. "It's just a matter of groszy."
"There's very little trade," agreed Gralyna Osu, a 59-year-old retiree who uses summer tourism to supplement her monthly retirement pay of zl. 400. "(Pilgrims) don't have money this year."
And while city officials argue that a few more beds could turn idle passersby into potential customers for street sellers such as Osu or food establishments such as Cafe Vecchia Milano, local hotel operators said that for most of the year they already have plenty of space.
"Of course there are days when Czestochowa is packed and all the hotels are busy," said Piotr Kmiecik, director of the Orbis "Motel" in Czestochowa, along the Warsaw-Katowice highway. "But when it comes to Czestochowa in general, it seems that we have enough (places to stay)." While the Orbis motel is sometimes booked up during the peak tourist season in August, the hotel can also lie 80% empty in the winter months, Kmiecik said.
Herbich of Global, which is backed by Enterprise Investors, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and AmerBank, says that the planned hotel's conference center and 140 high-quality "budget" beds will encourage longer stays at least for business travelers if only for a few pilgrims.
"Generally the hotels in Czestochowa don't represent the standards warranted by the presence of so many visitors," Herbich said, adding that Holiday Inn room costs will range from $60-$70. "If there is a good hotel certainly part of these tourists will stay."
In its bid to cater to businesses, Global Hotels also plans to construct 4,000 square meters of class-A office space adjacent to the hotel, Herbich said. While the group has still not found an investor for the project's office side, Herbich said he hopes that by the end of the year one will emerge.
The city is worried, though, that traditional forms of revenue will dry up, namely from the declining mining industry or the soon-to-be-gone government offices due to territorial changes that next year demote Czestochowa to a powiat within the Katowice voivodship.
That connection with Katowice could play a larger role in helping develop the city's business side, however. With manufacturers like Opel not far away, suppliers may find the former Czestochowa voivodship a hospitable home.
That's the case for air bag and seat belt producer TRW Polska, which is happy to be the city's second-largest employer with 1,300 workers. It also plans to hire "several hundred more" next year, said Rory Wilson, TRW Polska's plant manager.
The company has invested between $10 million-$20 million since it began production here in 1989 and plans to force a majority of its metal and plastic parts suppliers across Europe into joint ventures with Polish companies near Czestochowa and in other parts of Poland in the next few years, Wilson said.
"We're really pushing to localize as many of our parts here as possible," Wilson said, adding that Poland will be the dominant parts supplier to 25 TRW production plants across Europe.
And visiting TRW officials are just the guests Holiday Inn is looking for.
Those companies are the future of Czestochowa for Global, which intends to spend $9 million to build in the center of Czestochowa one of 20 Holiday Inns it plans to develop around Poland.
"(Pilgrims) come for one day and don't even sleep there. You can't count them," said Maciej Herbich, Global Hotels Development Group Polska's managing director. "We are especially looking for business travelers."
Czestochowa city officials, on the other hand, have a somewhat different vision. They believe that the city's future lies not so much in industry and commerce, but in the 4 to 5 million visitors who annually make their way up Czestochowa's main boulevard to pray at the sacred Jasna Gora, said Halina Rozpondek, mayor of Czestochowa.
"Czestochowa is called the spiritual capital of Poland," Rozpondek said. "Our dream and our strategic plan is to make Czestochowa into a Polish-wide and European-wide pilgrimage site."
Business leaders agree that the city has enormous tourism potential, but emphasize that there's more to Czestochowa than the Black Madonna.
"Knowing how important this city is for Poles, how many tourists there are, was the background for this (investment)," said Krzysztof Klapa, public relations director for McDonald's in Poland, which has invested $2.3 million in Czestochowa. "But it's also based on the residents. They spend good money there."
McDonald's has invested in three Czestochowa restaurants since 1993, with two on the Warsaw-Katowice highway and one in the center of the city near the pilgrimage route to Jasna Gora, Klapa said.
The city's relatively large population, its location on the Warsaw-Katowice highway and its industrial base are all enough to make Poland's spiritual capital a worthy home for capital investments, Klapa said.
"It is for sure a McDonald's success," Klapa said. "It's really a tiger on our list."
More recently, the city and its surroundings have attracted attention from entertainment developers such as Atomic Entertainment, which intends to put a bowling center in the city, and Portico, which plans to build a 10-screen movie theater combined with approximately 5,000 square meters of retail space.
"It's a big voivodship, that's what we're looking at," said Vinton Frost, Portico's chief executive officer, adding that about 1 million people live in Czestochowa and the surrounding region. "I'm impressed by the number of people that are walking the streets, particularly on weekends."
Almost 40% of the city's residents are employed in industry, with Huta Czestochowa steel mill employing around 6,000 of them. The town's 6.4% unemployment is 3% below the national average.
While Frost could not estimate the cost of the Czestochowa investment, it is comparable in size to one in Gdynia, which will cost $20 million, and larger than one planned for Wroclaw, likely to cost $15 million, he said.
Portico hopes that its investment will attract both family and youth from the city and outlying areas, but some aspects of the venture could cater to pilgrims, Frost said.
"The fact that this is such an important religious place is good for the economy," Frost said. "Hopefully (pilgrims) will come to the food court."
The city hopes its vision will mesh with that of companies like Portico if the city becomes a tourism empire, Czestochowa's Rozpondek said.
Global Hotels, while interested in capturing Czestochowa's business travelers, could prove essential in the city's plan for roping in tourists as well, Rozpondek said. An increase in high-standard accommodation would mean longer pilgrimages and more consumer spending, Rozpondek said.
"(Pilgrims) leave some money on food, on coffee and on buses," Rozpondek said, adding that the average stay lasts only several hours. "But they come to pray and then they go home.
"They could have more influence if we had hotels," he added. "This is the biggest source of pain for Czestochowa."
But many businesses aren't so sure. And with only 3-5% of pilgrims coming from abroad, breaking the mold of day trips and occasional overnight stays in Czestochowa will be difficult, admitted Ryszard Zabiello, Czestochowa's section manager for the department of economic initiatives and development.
Even if Czestochowa businesses find that local residents make a fair clientele, there is no counting on the patronage of pilgrims, said Juan Hernandez Towar, chairman of the board at the Italy-based Cafe Vecchia Milano, located on Czestochowa's main street leading up to Jasna Gora.
"This establishment exists thanks to Czestochowa residents, not tourists," Towar said. "Tourists only go to Jasna Gora, they don't walk around Czestochowa."
The reason tourists don't venture around the town is not for a lack of time or hotel space, said peddlers of religious goods on Jasna Gora, but a lack of cash. "People don't have money," said Hanina Rudek, a 70-year-old retiree who has sold beads and religious pictures from an outdoor stall on the hill for three years. "Every year is worse."
"I earn enough for potatoes and coal," Rudek said, adding that she is retiring from the trade after this year. "It's just a matter of groszy."
"There's very little trade," agreed Gralyna Osu, a 59-year-old retiree who uses summer tourism to supplement her monthly retirement pay of zl. 400. "(Pilgrims) don't have money this year."
And while city officials argue that a few more beds could turn idle passersby into potential customers for street sellers such as Osu or food establishments such as Cafe Vecchia Milano, local hotel operators said that for most of the year they already have plenty of space.
"Of course there are days when Czestochowa is packed and all the hotels are busy," said Piotr Kmiecik, director of the Orbis "Motel" in Czestochowa, along the Warsaw-Katowice highway. "But when it comes to Czestochowa in general, it seems that we have enough (places to stay)." While the Orbis motel is sometimes booked up during the peak tourist season in August, the hotel can also lie 80% empty in the winter months, Kmiecik said.
Herbich of Global, which is backed by Enterprise Investors, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and AmerBank, says that the planned hotel's conference center and 140 high-quality "budget" beds will encourage longer stays at least for business travelers if only for a few pilgrims.
"Generally the hotels in Czestochowa don't represent the standards warranted by the presence of so many visitors," Herbich said, adding that Holiday Inn room costs will range from $60-$70. "If there is a good hotel certainly part of these tourists will stay."
In its bid to cater to businesses, Global Hotels also plans to construct 4,000 square meters of class-A office space adjacent to the hotel, Herbich said. While the group has still not found an investor for the project's office side, Herbich said he hopes that by the end of the year one will emerge.
The city is worried, though, that traditional forms of revenue will dry up, namely from the declining mining industry or the soon-to-be-gone government offices due to territorial changes that next year demote Czestochowa to a powiat within the Katowice voivodship.
That connection with Katowice could play a larger role in helping develop the city's business side, however. With manufacturers like Opel not far away, suppliers may find the former Czestochowa voivodship a hospitable home.
That's the case for air bag and seat belt producer TRW Polska, which is happy to be the city's second-largest employer with 1,300 workers. It also plans to hire "several hundred more" next year, said Rory Wilson, TRW Polska's plant manager.
The company has invested between $10 million-$20 million since it began production here in 1989 and plans to force a majority of its metal and plastic parts suppliers across Europe into joint ventures with Polish companies near Czestochowa and in other parts of Poland in the next few years, Wilson said.
"We're really pushing to localize as many of our parts here as possible," Wilson said, adding that Poland will be the dominant parts supplier to 25 TRW production plants across Europe.
And visiting TRW officials are just the guests Holiday Inn is looking for.
