Search

Spatial accessibility by public transport is an important component of quality of life and an important factor undermining the development of rural areas. It is also a key element of a sustainable mobility system. The capitals of the powiat (county-level tier of administration in Poland) represent the level of the country's urban hierarchy at which most-important public services are provided. Yet previously only rather few accessibility studies had been carried out, to consider how accessible the rural localities (villages) in the countries different province-regions might be. To fill that gap, the research presented in this paper sought to assess the 2019 level of accessibility via public transport to their own county cities (powiat capitals) that characterized no fewer than 14,271 rural localities in 6 of Poland's 16 province-regions (i.e. Łódzkie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Małopolskie, Pomorskie, Warmińsko-Mazurskie and Zachodniopomorskie). The work also investigated factors shaping this accessibility, with a contribution thereby made to the ongoing debate as to the suitability of the current administrative division of Poland at county (powiat) level. The main findings and principal patterns as regards spatial accessibility could be summarised as follows: a. 1181 (8% of the studied) rural localities, with 215,000 inhabitants overall (or 4% of the rural population) had effectively no access to public transport at all; given that the nearest bus stop/railway station was beyond the acceptable distance of 4 km. b. Province-regions were found to differ markedly in terms of the measured accessibility, with Małopolskie province-region faring much better overall than the others (Figs. 1-2, 10). c. Nevertheless, internal differentiation in levels of accessibility was greater within province-regions than between them. The best-observed accessibility characterised the environs of larger cities, and especially the Metropolitan Areas of Kraków (Małopolskie), Łódź (Łódzkie) and Gdańsk (Pomorskie), as well as the main transport corridors. Only poor accessibility characterised peripheral areas of most of the counties, while the worst accessibility of all applied in places where powiat-\eve\ peripheries were simultaneously peripheries of entire province-regions. d. An important factor determining accessibility was the type and size of rural locality. The larger the village, the better the accessibility (Fig. 19). This also linked up with the way in which size anyway correlated positively with distance to county city. This is to say that villages close to county cities had populations 30-40% larger than those located on peripheries. e. Size of a county city also correlated positively with that city's accessibility (Fig. 18). That was especially true of cities with 20,000 or fewer inhabitants. These have less-developed public transport and, as a consequence, far lower accessibility in their environs. Taken together, these patterns sustain a conclusion that the deregulation of public transport in Poland, which took place in the 1990s and ushered in a competitive market model, has had a serious impact on accessibility, ensuring further polarisation and growth in disparities. While better-developed areas (those in which population density is higher and villages larger) continue to furnish enough demand for commercially-viable public transport to be sustained, most of the peripheral, low-population areas are now at risk of transport-related exclusion. In most cases, there is poor public transport in such areas solely because some lines connecting cities or leading to certain tourist destinations remain in place and cross peripheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper tackles problems associated with the attitudes of local communities and tourists towards landscape parks. The study is based on the results of questionnaire surveys conducted in all landscape parks located in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship among local residents (N=2000) and tourists (N=1077). The surveys demonstrated great support for landscape parks, both among local residents and tourists. The respondents noticed their positive effect on the quality of life and the development of tourism. Sadly, the knowledge on such protected areas was rather poor. Few tourists visited a specific area because of it being protected as a landscape park, as most them were not aware of this fact at all. Respondents from both groups hardly recognised landscape parks as institutions and had never heard of the activities undertaken by the Complex of Landscape Parks of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. The study subjects usually declared their willingness to improve their knowledge by getting involved in educational events organised by the Complex and one in four of them declared their readiness to join in activities for the benefit of the landscape parks studied. The domination of approving attitudes, combined with the declared interest in educational projects and the relatively high willingness to act for the benefit of the parks, creates a very favourable climate for the functioning of the Complex as an institution. These conditions should foster the process of building cooperation with local residents, developing initiatives integrating local residents and tourists around activities undertaken for the benefit of the parks, as well as undertaking actions strengthening the brand of the Complex of Landscape Parks of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship as an active entity, having a real impact upon the protection, promotion, and sustainable development of areas covered by its activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technology (ICT) allows for new, more interactive ways of promotion activities and tourist information presentation. Dissemination of broadband Internet and mobile devices as well as development of new programming technologies are main driving forces for broader use of tools such as mobile applications, social media, augmented and virtual reality. Territorial governments and most of all local governments use this potential in executing their tasks in the area of promotion and tourist information established by law regulations. The main goal of this paper was to present research results focused on activities in the area of promotion and tourist information where information and communication technology was implemented by local governments in communes of Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Collecting data about selected digital tools was conducted in 2013 and 2018 for 182 communes. Qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed on obtained database according to a set of criteria. Then, range and directions of activities were characterized and estimated. On this basis, activities realized by local governments in the research area can be described as numerous and various. Among examples of activities are modernization of official websites of commune offices, creation of next mobile applications, also with QR codes and beacon technology, and growing activity in social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]