Vistors cool to Poland's many charms
By : Justyna Wrobel
A group of advertising executives have put together a campaign to promote the country in a move to improve Poland's often tarnished overseas image. Part of the plan involves hitting up the government and private businesses for $8 million to pay for ads throughout Europe.
The idea is the brainchild of Mateusz Zmyslony, president of Krakow-based training company Eskadra, whose campaign seeks to increase the number of European tourists to the country. Tourism in Poland is on the decline, in terms of the number of visitors each year and the amount of money spent per trip.
"There is no country in Western Europe that does not advertise itself," Zmyslony said. "And Poland has a chance to be the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to run an advertising campaign."
With that aim, Zmyslony gathered together a group of advertising executives and media specialists in September and asked them to put together a campaign for Poland for free. After spending two months developing ideas for print, billboard and television ads, the group is looking to private companies such as Telekomunikacja Polska to donate funds. The group also hopes the government will contribute $4 million, Zmyslony said.
He said the group has already talked with conglomerate Elektrim about using the company's Internet portal to provide tourism information online as well as TPSA about organizing call centers to field questions in several languages from potential tourists. Zmyslony also said the group has approached public broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) about airing ads on its internationally broadcast TV Polonia, a Polish-language station for people living abroad.
On the government side, the group has spoken to the Polish Tourism Organization (POT), which was established in January 2000 to promote Polish tourism abroad, for funds and technical support. POT has agreed to help out.
"The government has to take part of the responsibility," said Pawel Krzykowski, a POT spokesman. "We will try to force it to do that."
The campaign, which will target people aged 20-45 in Europe, will run with the theme "Poland adventures with a happy end." The group wants to launch the campaign as early as March 2002 in 10 countries, including Germany, Austria, Holland, the U.K., the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Hungary.
"Thirty seven million people is the target group," Zmyslony said "So if only 1% of them comes to Poland, the project is worth it."
The advertising agencies already involved will be responsible for creating the campaign.
In addition to placing ads in pan-European media, the organizers said they also want to use international magazines such as Time and Newsweek. Billboards will appear in transport centers such as airports and railway stations in Germany, Austria, Holland, the U.K. and Switzerland. The campaign is focused on nature in Poland, promoting activities such as biking in the Bieszczady mountains, kayaking in the Mazurian Lakes and watching bison in Bialowieza near the border with Ukraine.
Zmyslony said Poland is mainly used as a transit hub, where tourists stay for a night or so on their way to another destination. A total of 17.7 million people stayed at least one night in Poland in 2000, down 1.4% from the previous year.
The amount of money those people are spending has also dropped. According to the Institute of Tourism, a tourist who stayed in Poland at least one night spent on average $159 in 1999, a figure that is 20.5% less than the previous year.
Polish government officials agreed that the country needs to work on its image abroad, which suffers from a perception that the country is rife with rural poverty. Krzysztof Lopacinski, the director of the Institute of Tourism, said the campaign should be coordinated with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which is already running a campaign to improve Western European acceptance of Poland's bid to join the European Union.
