As many as 80 percent of surveyed Poles intend to spend their vacation abroad, according to a survey conducted in May by GFK Polonia polling firm commissioned by the travel platform eSky.pl, show
Only slightly more, approximately 82 percent, of Romanians and Czechs plan to go on an international vacation, followed by Hungary with 76 percent, Croatia with 74 percent, and Bulgaria with 72 percent respectively.
Around one in three of Polish respondents (36 percent) will go abroad for vacation at least twice this year.
The way in which Poles organize their trips differs depending on the duration of their stay abroad. Longer trips organized independently, without a tour operator, were arranged by 48 percent of those surveyed, which is seven percentage points higher than in similar studies conducted by GFK Polonia the previous year.
Despite the increased popularity of self-organized travel, this result places Poland at the bottom among Central and Eastern European countries. For example, in Bulgaria, the percentage of such travelers is 61 percent, in Romania 63 percent, in Croatia 74 percent, and in Hungary 74 percent.
The situation is different in the case of vacations within cities. In this category, even 83 percent of surveyed Poles independently book all the components of such trips, including tickets, hotels, insurance, and airport transfers, while only 17 percent do it with the help of a tour operator. Only Hungary and Greece have a higher percentage of people traveling independently, both at 84 percent. Bulgaria ranks last, where even one-third of travelers opt for a city vacation with a tour operator (32 percent).
Respondents from Poland stated that when organizing longer trips, the participants most often take into account the climate and weather (63 percent of responses), price of the trip (60 percent) and the attractiveness of the travel destination (53 percent).
In turn, 41 percent of the surveyed Poles indicated travel dates and arrival as the most important factors when choosing a travel offer, while approximately 40 percent considered the way to spend time at the destination and the accommodation standard.
The study was conducted in eight countries: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Greece, and Czechia, with 600 interviews in each country among women and men aged 18-65, who have traveled abroad by plane with hotel/apartment accommodation in the last two years.
