More visitors in Poland, more guests in hotels

As many as 15.8 million tourists who visited Poland in 2014 stayed in hotels for at least one night, Chamber of Commerce of the Polish Hotel Industry (IGHP) estimated. Some 8 million people came to Poland in for business. In addition, more and more people use hotel services for organizing conferences, events and seminars. The number of one-night stays and people visiting the country without spending the night is also rising, according to IGHP president Ireneusz Węgłowski. Two-, three- and four-star hotels have the best developed services, Węglowski pointed out. They benefit the most from organizing business conferences and other events, whose number has increased six times since 2009. In Orbis’s case, half of the chain’s guest are business travelers. According to the Central Statistical Office (GUS), there were 2,107 hotels operating in the Polish market in 2013 (an increase of 4.6 percent compared to 2012). The majority of new hotels in 2013 were four- and five-star facilities. As many as 72.3 million foreigners visited Poland in 2013, an 8.8 percent increase over 2012, according to the Ministry of Sports and Tourism.