The withdrawals of European or American nationals are starting to weigh in the local economy, while the tourist season has already started.
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Damian carefully replaces the amber jewelry arranged on its stand inside the Halle with Krakow Sheets. Like the fifty sellers housed under the vaults of this renaissance jewel of architecture, this Cracovian tries to attract onlookers. If 14 million travelers, including 3.3 million foreigners, had visited the most touristy of Polish cities in 2019, foreign tourists now sulk Poland for its geographic proximity to its neighbor at war.
“We finally thought we saw the light at the end of the tunnel in 2022, after two years of pandemic [of Covid-19] and health restrictions. The season promised to be promising. But since the war in Ukraine, tourists have Largely disappeared. We have much fewer customers, while inflation is raging and everything we buy costs more, “said Damian, concerned about his turnover. Same question at Jacek (modified first name), a palefrenier who usually walks tourists in a carriage to the castle of Wawel from the Rynek, one of the largest places in Europe.
“I would say that there are up to 70 % less tourists than before the pandemic during the same period of the year,” he deplores. Opposite, at the corner of the Sainte-Marie basilica, a rare tourist guide is addressed in Spanish to a dozen people. And under the sheet of sheets, Frazer Ashkam, an Englishman who came to spend a weekend with friends in Krakow, hesitates to buy a memory. 2> “Daily decision”
Did he have a ulterior motive before flying to Poland? “We had already reserved everything, and then Poland is in NATO. But it is true that my mother-in-law and my wife tried to discourage me from coming: they said that everything would be closed, that it is the Country right next to Ukraine … Our host has communicated for a long time with us to reassure us and it has finished convincing us, “said the British tourist.
The Cracuvie Tourist Chamber published at the end of March the results of a survey carried out with tourism players in the region: 88 % of them suffered from massive cancellations of the services offered. And it is the French who praise the withdrawals, followed closely by the Americans and the Canadians. A figure that reaches almost 100 % for organized groups that normally welcome Jacek Legendziewicz, owner of the Jordan group, including several hotels in Krakow.
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