More Poles than Italians. The famous seaside city “resembles Warsaw”
Polish tourists took over the Italian city. Thanks to cheap flights, we even overtook the Italians in the number of overnight stays.
Is it possible that Poles in an Italian city will displace even native Italian tourists from the first place? As data obtained from the City Hall indicate, this is exactly what happened in Bari. During the “golden weekend”, between August 13 and 16, the pearl of the Adriatic was crowded like never before, and Poles constituted as much as 16.48 percent. all guests. “Bari is almost a province of Warsaw,” writes Corriere dela Sera, and one of the reasons for this phenomenon is the wide availability of cheap flights connecting the capital of the Puglia region with Polish cities.
Bari is a hit among Poles
The August long weekend turned out to be extremely successful for Bari in terms of tourism. According to “Corriere della Sera”, between August 13 and 16 the number of overnight stays increased by 13.5%. compared to the same period last year. Increased traffic also translated into tourist tax revenues, which exceeded PLN 88,000. euro. A year earlier in the same period they amounted to approximately 76 thousand. euro.
However, the biggest surprise was the nationality structure of foreign guests. Poles constituted 16.48 percent. all tourists, overtaking Italians, whose share was 16.01%. A year earlier, the situation was the opposite – Italians were in first place with a result of 19.83%, and Poles were in second place. This year’s list includes, among others: The French, Hungarians and Germans (approximately 9, 6 and 4% share respectively).
Cheap flights from Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice
It turns out that the reasons for this phenomenon are quite pragmatic. Although there are many historical connections between Poland and Bari (Bona Sforza, the Queen of Poland, is buried in the Basilica in Bari), this province of Italy is simply very easy to fly to. Low prices for connections from many cities throughout Poland and beautiful weather there make Bari an obvious destination for a city break or longer vacation.
However, Bari does not stop at Poles “Our path until 2027 is already planned: we want to launch another connection with North America and one with the Far East, expanding our markets,” says Tourism councilor Pietro Petruzzelli for Corriere dela Sera.
