Warsaw with record number of tourists in 2018

In 2018, the total number of tourist arrivals in Warsaw exceeded 10 million for the first time. A record was also broken in the number of tourist arrivals from a single country – 385 thousand arrivals from Great Britain were recorded. There were 13.7 million same-day visitors – according to the report “Tourism in Warsaw” published by the Warsaw Tourist Office.

Tourists came mostly to visit monuments, relax and visit relatives and friends. The most popular attractions were: The Old Town, Łazienki Królewskie, the Palace of Culture and Science, the Copernicus Science Centre and the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Tourists are increasingly willing to venture outside the city centre to discover local atmospheres, authentic stories and original flavours of the capital's districts. Warsaw is also a destination for numerous festivals, concerts by world-famous stars and sporting events. Last year, tourists spent an average of 4.4 days to discover and enjoy its attractions, declaring expenditures of around PLN 730 per person during a single stay.

Tourists perceive the dynamically developing Warsaw as an interesting city full of monuments, with well-functioning public transport, and consider its inhabitants to be extremely friendly. They rate the attractiveness of the city on a ten-point scale at 8.8, and the willingness to recommend a visit to Warsaw and the desire to come back to the city at over 9.   

Warsaw, being the largest and most important meeting place for scientific and business events, is the leader of MICE tourism in Poland. The capital city hosts a record number of congresses, conferences, fairs and incentive events on a national scale – in 2018 there were 13,500 of them.
In 2018, 76 meetings of international associations were organised in Warsaw (held cyclically, involving at least 50 participants and migrating between at least three countries), which gave the capital 29th place in the world in the ranking of the most important international association of the congress market – ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association).

With the development of tourism, both business and leisure, the entire tourism industry is growing, including the hotel industry. Warsaw has 600 accommodation facilities, including almost a hundred hotels. In 2018, the capital saw the addition of almost 6,000 new accommodation options, including over 2,700 in hotels.

Full data on the volume of tourist traffic, accommodation facilities, the most important attractions of the capital and business tourism can be found in the report available on the platform WarsawTour Media Bank and here. The publication was also created in an English version.