Krakow as a Tourist Metropolitan Area. Impact of Tourism on the Economy of the City

Krakow is one of the most recognizable Polish tourist destinations, has been included in the tourist metropolitan regions. The Old Town in Krakow and the Wieliczka Salt Mine were included in 1978 to the first World Heritage List of Culture and Nature. Krakow was the European Capital of Culture in 2000. It belongs to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, was in 2013 honoured as the UNESCO City of Literature, and the European Gastronomic Academy chose Kraków as the European Capital of Gastronomy Culture in 2019. Tourism in Krakow has a very important economic function. In 2018, Krakow has been visited by as many as 13.5 million people, including over 3 million guests from abroad. In the same year, tourists spent almost PLN 6.5 billion during their stay in Krakow, and the GDP generated by the tourist industry in Krakow is over 8% of the city's total GDP. Tourism gives Krakow 29 thousand permanent jobs, and taking into account multiplier effects, generates over 40,000 of them. In the article, the authors describe the importance of tourism for the city's economy, analyse the size of tourism, income from tourism and employment in tourism, as well as changes in the perception of the tourist offer of the city in the opinion of tourists over the last 10 years. They pay attention to changes in the theme of arrivals and satisfaction related to their visit in Krakow.