From centrally driven variations to market-driven development: Models of urban tourism evolution in Poland

Abstract

This chapter discusses the impact of politics and economics on urban tourism development in Poland over the last 70 years. It aims to verify the hypothesis of the overall model of the post-Soviet urban destination life cycle. Seven major Polish cities in Poland have been examined: Gdańsk, Kraków, Łódź, Lublin, Poznań, Warszawa, and Wrocław. According to the results, the impact of the shift from communism to capitalism on their tourism evolution trajectories is not unequivocal and equal. Subsequently, three different models of the evolution of the urban tourist function have been identified.