As of 2005, there were 2200 hotels in Poland with 169.609 beds. Therefore, the average number of beds per hotel was 77. Polish hotel base is growing (in 2003, 313 new hotels were commissioned, of which 162 in the cities and 151 in the country).

The biggest hotel base can be found in two cities: Warsaw and Krakow (and vicinity). These two locations also enjoy so far the biggest business traffic. Analyses prepared by the Institute of Tourism show that Poland has a large number of buildings appropriate for the organization of meetings, congresses and conferences for around 200 persons. According to the calculations, there were 721 conference centres in Poland in 2003, but almost half of them were located in 10 biggest cities (see Table 11.2). At the same time, the number of hotels which could serve as large conference centres is still too low.

Low prices are an advantage of Poland. According to estimations of professionals, organization of meetings and conferences is cheaper by 30 % than in the Western Europe.

*These are: 5, 4 and 3 star hotels, conference centres, conference and leisure centres and other conference units.

Tabela 11.1
Hotels and beds by category in Poland 2006 (as of 31.07.2006)

Source: Turystyka 2006, Warsaw, Central Statistical Office 2006.

Tabela 11.2
Conference and congress centres in Poland per city in 2003*

Source: Institute of Tourism, the report available at: http://www.mgip.gov.pl/NR/rdonlyres/
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9754/2Turystykabiznesowaw2003r.pdf