ethnic tourism — focus on poland

The present position of Polish ethnic tourism is the result of the historical evolution of the Polish Diaspora during the last hundred years. Ethnic tourism to Poland began in 1966, at the end of the stallnlst era, and represents about half of all tourist-nights spent in Poland by visitors from Western countries. The recent spectacular political changes in Poland and other Eastern European countries are decisive for the future evolution of Polish ethnic tourism and the new ethnic tourist markets are important both for host countries and generatlng countries. The Polish ex- perience indicates a high degree of sensitivity to political stability in particular host countries.

Ethnic tourism - focus on Poland

Stan&law Ostrowski

Stanislaw Ostrowski is the former Deputy Director of the Polish lnsvut Turystyki He now works part-time for the Society of the Free Polish University, where he can be contacted at Al. Waszyngtona 45151, 04- 008 Warsaw, Poland.

Submitted May 1990; accepted February 1991.

‘A. Dziewulak, Some problems of Polish ethnic foufism, Institute of Tourism, War- saw, Poland, May 1990 (in Polish), see Appendix 1; and J. Tanopoulos and A.H. Walle, ‘Ethnicity and its relevance to marketing: the case of tourism’, Journal of Travel Research, Vol 25, Number 3, Uni- versity of Colorado, Winter 1988.

One of the most visible signs of the new democracy in Poland is the unprecedented growth of transfrontier migrations. In 1989 the foreign arrivals rose to 8.2 million persons as compared with 6.2 million in 1988 (133%). The figures mentioned only cover tourist arrivals as defined by the WTO:

0 tourists and excursionists, excluding emigrants; 0 foreign guests with the intention of, and permission for, permanent

stay in the host country; 0 temporary employees.

Here the theoretical distinction is also clear - the tourist brings money and spends it in the visited country but the temporary employee, although, in practice, often arriving as a tourist, is looking for a paid occupation in the host country and transfers the earned money or bought goods back to his homeland.

The subject of this article is a special segment of international tourism - ethnic tourism. What exactly is ethnic tourism? The shortest answer is foreign travel to an ancestral home without the intention of permanent settlement, emigration or re-emigration, or undertaking temporary paid work.

There are two perspectives from which to analyse the phenomenon of ethnic tourism - from that of the host or visited country, ie incoming ethnic tourism, and from that of the tourism generating country, ie outgoing.ethnic tourism. The latest Polish survey can be presented as an example of the analysis carried out from the host country perspective, whereas the study of the Greek-American propensity to travel to Greece conducted by Panapoulos and Walle presents a classic case of ethnic tourism analysis as seen from the perspective of a tourism generating country.’ It is significant that in both cases the independently chosen criteria indicating ‘level of linkage’ - the Polish survey, and ‘propensity to travel to Greece’ - the American study, correspond closely with each other. The linkage criteria for the Polish survey included:

0 born in Poland; l contacts with family and/or friends in Poland; 0 knowledge of the Polish language.

The American study criteria for the propensity to travel included:

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Ethnic tourism -focus on Poland

0 being first generation American or born in Greece; l speaking Greek fluently; l corresponding with Greece on a regular basis.

These criteria may be taken to constitute the minimal elements required to compose the definition of the ethnic tourist. The economic and cultural importance of ethnic tourism is distinctly reflected in data selected from several international publications concerning countries with developed ethnic tourism foreign arrivals - Ireland, the UK, Israel and Greece (see Appendix 2). The analysis of these data gives the necessary international background for comparison with the case study of Poland.

The Polish Diaspora

‘Which is the second biggest Polish town?’ ‘lodz, of course!’ - would be the response of everybody familiar with Polish internal realities, indicating the place which is actually the second industrial city, after Warsaw, in mid-Poland (close to one million inhabitants). ‘Oh, no!’ a witty interrogator would reply - ‘It’s Chicago!’

It is difficult to prove if the number of ethnic Poles living in Chicago exceeds the population of todz, but nevertheless this jocular dialogue reflects a statistical reality - every fourth member of the Polish ethnic community, numbering about 50 million people, is living outside Poland. In the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the USA in particular became the country where the most numerous waves of Polish emigration sought new homes, jobs, food and individual freedom.

The Poles were deprived of these values in their own country which had been partitioned at the end of the 18th century and incorporated into three hostile empires - tsarist Russia, the Kaizer’s Germany and the Hapsburgs’ Austrian monarchy. The restitution of the independent Republic of Poland after the first world war failed to stem the tide of emigration caused by poor economic conditions, especially in the overpopulated villages of southern Poland. But in the 1920s and 1930s the European destinations dominated. After the second world war the political division of Europe prevented many thousands of Polish sol- diers, fighting against Nazi-Germany under allied command in Western Europe, from returning to Poland, which became an integral part of the so-called Eastern Block. So together with other dispossessed survivors a community of about 150 thousand Polish combatants and their families remained in the UK and became one of the better situated, better educated and more influential Polish groups abroad. Due to the new political situation in Poland the isolationist attitude held for decades by the leading Polish emigrant circles has been observed to change significantly. So the new growth in the propensity to travel to Poland among the British ethnic Poles is to be expected.

Political emigrants and ‘one direction tourists’

There was also a political background to the new waves of emigration after 1968 when several thousands of Polish Jews left Poland for Israel or west European countries and the USA, and again in the early 1980s after the first ‘Solidarity’ period and introduction of martial law. The continuing desire to leave Poland has resulted in the last few years in

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semi-legal emigration, mostly with officially obtained Polish passports and tourist visas. The motivation of looking for better economic conditions is overwhelmingly evident. The most popular countries chosen as destinations for this kind of ‘one direction tourism’ are [FR] Germany, Austria and Italy and many problems arose in those countries which were embarrassing for local and central authorities which resulted in a poor image for those groups of unwanted tourists-emigrants.

The Polish Diaspora of 12-14 million people, one of the most numerous in the world, has shaped the historical evolution of Poland. Its geographical dissemination places the USA with its eight to nine million Polish ethnics at the top, followed traditionally by Brazil (about one million) and in Europe the traditionally top-ranked France has been overtaken in the last few years by the Polish ethnic community in [FR]Germany. Apart from the UK (mentioned above) minor Polish ethnic groups of several tens of thousands are to be found in Austria, Italy and Sweden.

This traditional picture can now be brought up-to-date because of the political changes in the USSR. There are significant numbers of Polish ethnics living in Lithuania, Byelorussia and the Ukraine whose number is estimated at over one million people, so giving the Soviet citizens of Polish origin second place in the Polish ethnics world-wide ranking. Until Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost period these groups, actually not emigrants but autochthonous national minorities, were not included in the official estimations of the Polish Diaspora. Now, the Polish ethnics in the USSR are also included in the updated tourism analyses.

Polish incoming tourism

After the so-called ‘Polish October’ (Gomulka’s come-back in 1956 and the first breakthrough in the fierce stalinist rule in Poland) ethnic Polish arrivals from abroad rose systematically until 1979, when their volume was estimated at 280 000 visitors. Then in the early 1980s the critical breakdown followed and so-called ‘Polonian’ visits to Poland dropped to the level of a mere 100 000. However, by 1983 ethnic tourism had risen significantly and this trend has continued apart from in 1986 - the year of the Czernobyl disaster. Ethnic tourism in both directions has risen particularly rapidly in Poland since 1989 after the spectacular political reshuffle culminating in the creation of the first noncommunist government in this part of Europe.

The latest estimates indicate that the figures for 1989 will exceed the (until now) record results of 1988 - 670 000 ‘Polonian’ tourists visiting their ancestral homeland. The estimate includes about 300 000 Polish ethnics coming from the USA and Western European countries, about 200 000 from the USSR and other Eastern European countries, and about 170 000 Polish citizens with permanent residence abroad. The dominant generating countries are - the USSR in Eastern Europe, [FR]Germany in Western Europe, and the USA among overseas countries. Proportionally, 5% of the 5.1 million visitors from the USSR and other Eastern European countries are ethnic Poles as are nearly 49% of the 1.1 million visitors from Western Europe and overseas. When considering the longer-stay visitors to Poland, it can be seen that more than half of the tourist-nights from Western countries is contri- buted by Polish ethnics. In this context the important, if not dominant, role of ethnic tourism in Poland is obvious.

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New development - new challenges

Ethnic tourism responds quickly to any fundamental changes in the political and socioeconomic life of Poland today. The sensitivity of ethnic tourism was demonstrated in 1982 when, because of the imposi- tion of martial law the drop in ethnic visits was higher than in non-ethnic arrivals - but then in 1983 and the following years the recovery in ethnic tourism was much more dynamic than observed in global foreign arrivals to Poland. Some of the principal determinants influencing Polish ethnic tourism today include:

Systematically improved relations between the Polish government and the Catholic Church, crowned by the resumption of diplomatic relations in 1989. Repeated visits to Poland by the Polish Pope John Paul II resulted in an increased number of pilgrim tourists especially from the USA. Here the role of Polish parishes and catholic priests is to be stressed. The itineraries cover ‘obligatory’ visits to Czes- tochowa (a religious centre with the famous Black Madonna shrine), Cracow, and Wadowice (birthplace of Karol Wojtyla). Essential changes in the traditional approach to the question of Polish ethnicity by the USSR, and also in relation to the emigrants (legal and illegal) to Western countries, who were given the possibility of unlimited and undisturbed visits to Poland. The resumption of diplomatic relations between Poland and Israel creating new opportunities (seldom taken before now) for Jews of Polish origin living in Israel to visit their ancestral homeland. Many unprecedented initiatives have been undertaken to save rich trea- sures of mutual Polish-Jewish cultural heritage which remained on Polish soil.

Foreign policy on ethnic tourism

For several post-war decades the relations between the country’s governmental circles and Polish ethnic centres, especially in the USA and the UK, were negatively influenced by political strains in a divided Europe and internal tensions iri Poland. But nevertheless those relations were all the time a subject of vivid official interest - a special governmental commission headed by the Foreign Minister was active for decades and formulated the principal directives for the Polish governmental policy concerning ethnic groups abroad. Tourism has also been included in the framework of this policy planning, although only small financial support has been provided - mainly for promotional purposes.

On the other hand special structures for ethnic tourism were created, and programmes carried out for decades, by the Polish Catholic Church. Also operating from 1957 until March 1990, the Society ‘Polonia’ marked many valuable achievements when maintaining permanent active links with many Polish ethnic centres abroad, seeing family links as one of the strongest motives for undertaking tourist journeys to Poland. The society’s activities include the traditional links and long- term cooperation with many travel offices run by the tour-operators of Polish origin which deal primarily with the USA where the nationwide organization, the Society of Polish-American Travel Agents (SPATA), is active. In addition there is the UK-based Fregata Travel in London



(run by Captain Tad Kutek) which maintains traditional cooperation with the old country.

In March 1990 the new Polish World Organization has replaced the old ‘Polonia’ Society - ‘The Polish Community’. Its Chairman is Professor Stelmachowski - the Chairman of the Polish Senate - and in the ranks of the Community’s council you may find competent repre- sentatives of the Polish Catholic Hierarchy and of the largest ethnic centres all over the world. A special meeting of this organization was held in late 1990 in Rome, Italy, under the symbolic blessing of the Polish Pope. All these events and developments including Lech Wale- sa’s spectacular visits to the USA and Canada, and that of the Prime Ministers Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Jan K. Biclecki to the UK, broke the ice between Polish ethnic groups in visited countries. Furthermore the repeated sojourns in Warsaw of Mr Moskal- Chairman of the Polish Congress in the USA - marked the new era of harmony between the Old Country and Polish Diaspora.

Good prospects for tourist business

Based on general political development, a new dynamic wave of tourism growth in Poland can be foreseen with ethnic tourism predominating. As a result there is much new activity in the Polish foreign service agencies - Polish embassies and consulates in all interested countries have been supplied with the necessary information material and are obliged to promote visits to Poland more energetically:

0 by the introduction of several modern planes (Boeing 767) on the most important long-distance routes (New York, Chicago, Mon- treal);

0 by encouraging the lively interest of Western businessmen in tourism investments in Poland - several new hotels have been constructed in Warsaw with the participation of foreign capital, and all over Poland many joint ventures in tourism are being conducted or prepared. Examples of cooperation include an exploratory visit by a group from Cambridge Economic Consultants who plan a study tour of Poland in cooperation with the British Council and the Warsaw Club of Theory and Practice of Tourism;

0 by the liberalization and privatization of the tourist industry leading to increased contacts with travel agencies abroad - although the traditional Polish Travel Office ‘Orbis’ still holds the dominant position cooperating with more than 600 travel agencies all over the world and having offices in many European and overseas capitals, eg at 313 Regent Street in London.

Although the Polish tourism industry units operate on a commercial basis the development of Polish tourism is being included in many programmes of international economic assistance for Poland including the case in relation to the UK, and further encouragement of Polish ethnic tourism from the UK to Poland may be embraced by those programmes and so be of potential interest to the British tourist industry.

Conclusions

The Polish ethnic tourism case study when compared with examples

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Ethnic rourism -focus on Poland

from some other countries allows us to formulate some conclusions of more universal relevance:

0

0

e

Ethnic tourism is to be seen from two different perspectives - from that of the tourism generating countries, where according to the size, economic strength and social prestige of a particular ethnic group it can be treated as a segment of the tourism market representing a specially motivated demand for tourism services. Here the Greek-American study and experiences of Polish- American Travel Agents may supply theoretical and practical examples. Ethnic tourism is also seen from the perspective of the tourist destination countries, eg Ireland, Poland and Israel, where the ethnic Diaspora is sufficiently large and living in concentrated and organized communities.In such countries complex and systema- tic promotion and marketing activities directed at the main ethnic centres are necessary. On the other hand there is the need to adapt the host country tourist infrastructure and reception programmes to the needs, standards and preferences of ethnic visitors. Ethnic tourism as a newly identified segment of the international tourism market lacks scientific research and internationally compa- rable statistical data. Therefore the cited study of the Greek- American propensity to travel to Greece, and the Polish frontier sample survey, can be seen as pioneer research which it is hoped will encourage others to undertake similar studies. The example of Poland may be seen as evidence that ethnic tourism (maybe more than international tourism as a whole) is particularly sensitive to and dependent on political factors and changes in political situations. Internationally the relations between East and West and terrorism activities have the most impact, whereas the level of ethnic arrivals to an individual country depends mainly on its internal political situation and general stability.

It seems proper to conclude my article by expressing the hope that the present, positive, democratic changes in the international situation, especially in Central and Eastern Europe linked with the Soviet perestroika, will bring further progress in international tourist relations as a whole and thus provide a framework for all kinds of ethnic tourism.

Appendix 1 Polish ethnic arrivals 1989 (Summary of a sampIe survey carried out at Polish frontiers in July-August 1989.)

Ten frontier crossing points were chosen including Warsaw Airport Okecle, Ferryboat port Swinoujscie, five road and three railway crossing points. The number of interviews carried out was 2381 involving 5123 people of whom 38% were ethnic Poles. The generating countries and numbers of Polish ethnic tourists were as follows:

0 [FR]Germany 525 (54.6%) 0 USSR 129 (13.2%) 0 France 58 (5.9%) 0 Sweden 53 (5.4%) 0 USA 49 (5.0%) 0 Holland 44 (4.5%) 0 Finland 21 (2.1%) 0 UK 20 (2.0%)

These tourists travelled mainly by car (73.3%) with the remainder travelling by bus (11.1%) and by plane (9.6%). The visits were variously motivated with some tourists having more than one purpose in mind:

Purpose of Arrivals Arrivals visit from from

West (%)USSR (%) 0 visiting family

or friends 53.2 75.2 0 visiting country

of origin 44.5 27.1 0 visiting an

interesting tourist country 21.0 40.8

0 religious pilgrimage 9.3 29.5

0 business 15.5 8.5 0 scientific

meetings 2.2 3.1 0 sports events 1.7 1.3


EIhic tourism - jbcw on Puianii

.teresting differences between the a frequency of visiting Poland more from the USSR; two generating areas can be observed. than once - 61.7%; e contacts with family in Poland - It is possible to derive the following r) knowledge of Polish language 67.5% tourists from the West and linkage indices from the results of the average or better - 6 1.1% tourists 85.3% tourists from the USSR. survey: from the West and 55.0% tourists

Appendix 2 Inte~nat~cn~ comparison - statistics evidence

Ireland . . . Culturally the Republic of Ire-

land also has much to offer and many US tourists perceive it as the source of their ancestral heritage. Nearly 150 years of steady emigration has created a large pool of ethnic Irish, particularly in the USA and UK, which has provided the reliable mainstay for the tourism economy.2

The generating countries ethnically linked with Ireland hold the top posi- tions on the international arrivals ranking list;j first the UK with 1465 @Xl second the USA with 373 300, third [West] Germany and fourth France. Tourist arrivals in 1988 totalled 2 346 000.

In 1986, international tourist re- ceipts totalled in fmillions were ranked as follows:

1. UK - 171,l; 2. USA - 139.1; 3. Northern Ireland - 39.7.

Total tourism revenue in 1986 amounted to fd75.7 million.” The proportion visiting friends and rela- tives (VFR) among British arrivals to

Ireland was 57%, rising to 85% among those on a repeat visit to Ireland in 1985. An additional important com- ment was that ‘a resurgence of emigration of young people unable to find work in Ireland over the last few years has given added impetus to VFR traf- fic’.

UK The statistics of tourist arivals to the UK are the most convincing proof for the importance of ethnic tourism.” Out of 15.8 million visitors to the UK in 1988 the major proportion - 16.6% were from the USA, with the next largest group coming from [FR]Ger- many - 12.5%.

Israel Out of 1.4 million foreign visitors in

1987 the highest number were from the USA - 293 000, with [FR]Ger- many second - 182 000, and third France - 158 0@X6

Greece Foreign arrivals in f988 were mainly from the UK - 23%, then {FR] Ger-

many with 17.8% and third the USA with 3.8%. Total arrivals were 7.8 million. The ethnic factor is not so distinctly visible here and may be due to the further distance and possibly weaker economic position of ethnic Greeks in the USA.’

21n&ernafi5ffat Tou~;s~ Reports, No 4, Eco- nomist Publications* National Report No 1.1.1987. 3Tuurism Policy and ~~ternatjonal Tourism in OEXXJ Member Countries in 1988, OEC5, Paris, France, 7989. .+/bid. ‘Op tit, Ref 3. 6World Tourism Organization, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, WTO, Madrid, Spain, 1988. ‘ibid.

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ethnic tourism — focus on poland

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