As the summer holiday season reaches its halfway point, the hospitality industry in Poland finds itself facing challenges due to low tourist numbers. Both hospitality operators and tourists have

expressed dissatisfaction with the current situation.

According to a midsummer analysis conducted by accommodation service Nocowanie.pl, the outlook for August appears somewhat more positive compared to July. However, this year remains challenging for the country's tourism industry. High inflation has impacted the spending capacity of Poles, resulting in a significant drop in overall bookings compared to the previous year, with a decline of 33 percent.

Tomasz Machała, CEO of Nocowanie.pl, stated that the industry is facing a difficult year due to decreased interest in domestic tourism and financial constraints, along with higher operational costs. Many hosts are contemplating closing their businesses as a result.

Although Baltic seaside locations have been more popular this year, even these areas see crowds mainly on weekends, when both foreign tourists and locals visit the beaches. Short trips have become the trend for this year's holidays, with the average length of bookings in July and August being 3.6 hotel days. In the last two weeks, reservations have been even shorter, averaging 2.9 days.

Despite the challenges, there is hope that August will perform better than July. Many tourists are leaving their booking decisions until the last minute this season, which may lead to an improvement in the second half of the holidays.

On a positive note, prices have stabilized after last year's surge. The current average price per person per night for the whole country is PLN 114. Sopot, a popular Baltic seaside resort, is the most expensive, with an average cost of PLN 149 per person per night, approximately 10 percent higher than last year. Zakopane, a well-known mountain resort in the Tatra region, offers slightly lower costs, averaging PLN 100 per person per night.

Machała advises travelers to compare various offers and consider attractive discounts and promotions offered by their partners to enhance traffic and encourage last-minute bookings. Photo by MOs810, Wikimedia commons.