Improving Polish hospitality

Tourism experts estimate that at least 500,000 fans from all over Europe will converge on Poland for the Euro 2012 soccer championship. At the same time, however, the Polish cities that will be hosting the tournament are in desperate need of new hotels, raising fears of an accommodation shortage.

According to Gazeta Prawna, Warsaw boasts around 30,000 hotel rooms of varying standard, but this is not enough to satisfy current demand, let alone cope with a major event.

A recent report by the European Mortgage Fund (EFH) stated that Wrocław has about 22,000 rooms and will see 15 additional hotels built within the next four years. Poznań's 49 hotels offer over 6,260 rooms, with 35 more hotels in the area, and over 3,000 more rooms are expected before Euro 2012. Gdańsk, with about 10,000 hotel rooms, is almost ready for the competition, according to EFH.

Over the next four years, the number of the hotel rooms in Poland is expected to increase from 73,000 to about 100,000. Four hotels are currently being built in Warsaw and their rooms will go some way towards satisfying current demand, but will do little for future demand. As an added incentive for hotel development, Warsaw authorities are offering investors property tax cuts.

Euro 2012 host cities are already attractive for major hotel chains and eight of the 10 largest hotel groups in the world are already present in Poland. Most of these have further investment plans - Hilton, Holiday Inn and Orbis Accor plan to build new hotels. Other brands, including Choice Hotels and French chain Akena Hotels, are getting ready to enter the Polish market.

Poland's host cities are not yet prepared to welcome soccer fans and tourists, but experts expect them to be ready on time. According to the Polish Institute of Tourism, around 100 new hotels will be opened in the country each year until 2012.