Tourist function in rural areas of Poland. Spacial diversity and changing trends

This paper presents the findings of research carried out by the author, concerning the development of tourist function in the period 1995-2005. Tourist function was defined by means of two features: the number of tourists using lodging facilities and the number of companies registered in the REGON system, section H. In order to quantify the tourist function, a synthetic measure (Ft) was employed according to the procedure of Z. Zioło (1973). Based on this measure, five levels of tourist function development were specified. Next, an analysis was carried out on what changes (quantitative and spatial) occurred in the development of tourist function in rural areas. Special attention was paid to the so-called tourist communes (gmina), i.e. those where the tourist function is developed to at least an intermediate level. For these communes, nine functional types were identified, based on two features – the average length of visitors’ stay and the percentage of all-year lodging). Moreover, changes taking place in the studied period were specified.