Hoteliers look to the open sky

The hotel market in Poland, struggling for so long, can be forgiven for being tantalised by the Polish government's recent acceptance of the 'open sky' policy, which welcomes all the world's airlines to descend upon the country. Of these, the budget airlines could be the ones to bring in droves from the West starting, it seems likely, with RyanAir in the autumn

In two to three years time, fellow cut-price airline EasyJet could be following suit. As yet they are the only 'no-thrills' operator flying to a destination in former Communist Europe and that's Prague, almost certainly the most sensible choice for any flight operator trying to break into the region's tourist market. Its historical beauty is a must now for western travellers looking for weekend breaks.

Warsaw at the weekend
Michael O'Hare of Horwarth Consulting argues that "Warsaw's key weakness is its slack weekend market", and is convinced that the arrival of the cheaper airlines can only bring positive results to the city. Christian Gartmann, General Manager of the Radisson SAS Centrum Hotel, which opened in Warsaw towards the end of last year, concurs, as do John Quero, General Manager of the Rialto Hotel, to open in the city in a couple of month's time and Alex Kloszewski, Six Continents' Area General Manager for Poland and the Czech Republic.
The 'budget' associations of RyanAir and its ilk, perhaps encourage the view that those travelling on them are looking for correspondingly cheap accommodation when they arrive at their destination. Typically enough for the Irish airline, its first port of call is likely to be in the provinces, in Szczecin, up in the north of Poland and some way from the capital. If both these factors are the case, then the three general managers mentioned above are unlikely to be the first to benefit.
"People paying less on their flights, will have more to spend when they get here," remarks Christian Gartmann, meaning that they will have the spare cash for luxury accommodation and John Quero maintains that, "discount airlines appeal to the broad spectrum of travellers, whether they stay in hostels or 4/5 star hotels". Others with a knowledge of the Polish hotel market, aren't so optimistic, certainly as far as the capital is concerned.

Away from the capital
Michael Widman of PKF International Consultants based in Germany, believes that one possible consequence of the open sky policy in Poland might actually be to take business away from Warsaw to the benefit of other cities. "Warsaw's role will decrease," he says, giving the reason that as it is not the most attractive capital in the world and that other Polish cities, such as Kraków, Gdansk and Wrocław are, it will no longer act as the hub for travellers to Poland. "Poland will enter a new stage of tourism," he says, because "people will no longer have to spend one night in Warsaw."
Whilst its tourist potential might be questioned, though Michael O'Hare counters, "that there are a lot less attractive cities than Warsaw in Europe," it still remains true that the capital is that of the largest EU pre-accession country and a natural magnet for pan-European business travellers. An 'open sky' will lower flight prices and should act as an extra inducement for those keen on developing contacts in a land of new opportunity. Alex Kloszewski even believes that the budget airlines might play a role here. "The existence of budget flights to a country might well be an important factor when companies are considering sending junior managers abroad for conferences or training, for example," he says.

Case study
For the time being, the really cheap flights will be directed at the provinces and that of Szczecin, a shipbuilding town with little of direct interest for the average tourist. Christian Gartmann suggests that RyanAir's presence will have "a big impact on the region," up there by the Baltic Sea, which would include the Tri-City of Gdynia, Sopot and Gdańsk of course. But what of Szczecin itself, where incidentally, a Radisson SAS hotel has been doing business for over ten years now and was in fact the chain's first in Poland? "We're the market leaders there," claims Gartmann.
A recent report by Dow Jones International News, focused on the impact RyanAir had had on the town of Charleroi in Belgium, until recently a nondescript mining town, that had suffered quite extreme hardship when the pits closed in the 1980s. Since 2001 when RyanAir set up its first continental operation, Charleroi has become Belgium's second busiest airport and attracted 1.27 million passengers last year. One source in the article was quoted as saying that RyanAir, "were a blessing from the sky," before whom, "there was nothing here".
Whilst it won't be suggested that Szczecin is about to become an important tourist attraction to rival the more obvious centres in Poland, as a transit destination for RyanAir's passengers it's hard to see how its hotels won't experience some benefit, if Charleroi's example is anything to go by.
There may well be certain shades of opinion regarding Warsaw's potential for attracting more tourists but one thing both it and Poland do possess, as Michael O'Hare points out, is "novelty value". For those thousands who frequently look to their maps of Europe for a new city to visit and want to pay as little as they can getting there, Poland is as likely a choice as anywhere.