Search

The article deals with the issues of Poland's tourism competitiveness and the role of rural tourism development. The study reveals that tourism can be an important area of the local economy and act as a stimulus of endogenous development. To assess the competitiveness of tourism regions in the Europe, the authors used the TTCI (Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index) covering the period from 2015 to 2017. The aim of the research was focused on the evaluation of Poland's tourism competitiveness compared with other European countries. The analysis of TTCI data reveals that Poland's tourism competitiveness shows a positive trend. In the analysed period, the most competitive countries were Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom and the closest competitors of Poland were Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Latvia. The deeper insights in comparing the attractiveness of Poland compared with other East European and Balkan countries give evidence that the nature and landscape values of agricultural land of Poland are very highly rated in Europe, and the only Poland's indicator which stands out from the overall tourism indicators is country's international openness, which in reality is only indirectly linked with Poland's nature and landscape attractiveness as it mainly depends on the EU geopolitical aspects. The research is based on the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data available in secondary information sources; the methods of induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis are used to reach the aim of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural space in the Baltic Sea East Coast States - Latvia, Lithuania and Poland - comprises a significant part of the territories of these states. It occupies more than half of each state's territory and employs more than a third of labour market participants. For these reasons, the future prospects of the rural space in each of the states is an important issue in designing their smart growth strategies. Smart growth is determined not only by objective circumstances but also by local authorities, the activity of various public organisations and the readiness of residents to act under the guidance of the mentioned formations. The present research focuses on these formations, which may be assumed to be performance agents, and on their influence on smart growth and the viability of rural areas. The research employed the survey method - a survey of experts was conducted (n=171 in Latvia; n=163 in Lithuania; n=111 in Poland, carried out during 2016) to assess each performance agent's contribution to smart growth. Summarising the expert opinions allows performing a comprehensive comparison in terms of similarities and differences in evaluating each agent's performance in each country surveyed and defining primary objectives to be achieved in order to improve the smart growth process for each performance agent under the particular conditions of their country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]