Summer daze
By : Celia Barnes
Anna, a Warsaw mother of two, refuses to give her last name. She is embarrassed because this year is the first time she has ever had the money to send her two children on holidays.
Kasia, 12, and Mariusz, 10, went on a two-week horseback-riding holiday to the Tatra Mountains last month.
"They had such a good time, they're hoping they can go again next year," said Anna, a nurse who works at a Warsaw hospital. "But I'm not sure I can afford it."
Anna took a loan to cover the zl. 1,800 cost of the holiday. The money had been earmarked for renovations to their apartment.
"But I really wanted to spend it on my children," she said.
For Anna and her family, the economy has been squeezing their wallets for some time. Her neighbors are also feeling the pinch. "They used to send their kids away for holidays, but now they send them away to visit family," she said. "It's cheaper."
For many of Warsaw's kids, it's been one long, slow summer spent hanging around the house.
Polling agency TNS OBOP's most recent research on the vacationing habits of Poles reported that this year 51% of them did not go anywhere for their summer holidays.
Fewer kids have gone on family holidays to visit relatives, and even less have gone on winter holidays. What's more, for 12% of Poles, there will be no vacations at all in 2001.
The main reason for the holiday slump, according to the deputy director of the state tourism department, Elzbieta Wyrwicz, is money or the lack of it. Under the current economic woes, people are spending less on their vacations, and this in turn is affecting the health of the tourism industry.
It's also not looking good for inbound tourism. For the period of January-May of this year, the number of foreign arrivals fell to 25.5 million down 24.4% from the same period last year.
But for those lucky Poles who did get away, 10% chose to splash in the Baltic; 7% went hiking in the mountains and lakes areas, and a lucky 5% went abroad. Another 4% headed to their family properties or dzialka.
For Bogusia Hill and her children Aneta, 9, and Jurek, 12 (pictured), they spent their holiday at home in Warsaw with their little sister, Monika, 3. They visited the zoo, the swimming pool, the movies and Aneta went to a church summer camp in the city.
"For most people, I think it's getting too expensive to go away ... even private quarters that you can rent are expensive," Hill said.
For Jadwiga Karwowska, holiday happiness is being able to afford a week away once a year to the Baltic with her children Maciek, 13, and Asia, 11.
Alexandra Janczuk is just as content with her vacation: Three weeks at the family dzialka in Kielce with her husband and children Gabriel, 5, and baby Mikolaj, 8 months.
"It's the cheapest holiday we can get, and that's where we usually go," Janczuk said. "There's a forest nearby, and there's lots of things to do. Life is more expensive these days, so that means there is less money to spend on holidays."
Another point raised by vacationers was the relative expense of Polish holidays compared to traveling abroad. In some cases, it can be cheaper to leave Poland for vacation.
Warsaw grandfather, Julian Osowski, is going on a two-week package bus tour of Italy for zl. 2,000. His grandchildren and their parents went to Turkey in July and later to the Mazurian Lakes.
"And the other good thing about going abroad, is that the weather is more certain," Osowski said.
