Long haul touristic destinations from Poland with great result in 2019 waiting to restart again

What were the most popular long-haul touristic destinations from Poland? Which ones grew the most? What were the plans of LOT? What can we expect for 2021

Polish market in 2019 proved to be an important traffic generator not only for medium-haul destinations but also for long ones. As the Polish economy was doing extremely well, tourism got big benefits from this trend. A good indication was also a boom in the incentive market which was generating enormous traffic for long-haul destinations too.

Bangkok, Den Pasar, Male as top leisure destinations

Iata agents have sold almost 18 thousand of air tickets to Bangkok in 2019 , Hanoi with 15 thousand and Den Pasar was following Thai capital with 8,500 documents.  On fourth position Male with 7,800 tickets than Phuket  7500 and Mexico city on 6 ^h position with more 6700, followed by Colombo with 6000. The last one was served by LOT direct flight. Not far from Sri Lankan capital Ho Chi Minh with slightly less than 6K. Still, important figures registered by Sydney, Manila, and Havana.

Just to remember these are only numbers generated by Iata agents, own airline sale is excluded and for leisure destinations can be a very important piece of the cake.

Thailand and Vietnam seem to be very stable leaders but it’s clear that more demanding travelers were looking for more distant destinations that’s why Den Pasar, Mexico, and Havana were gaining ground.

Polish Tour Operators with double-digit growth on long haul destinations

An important fact to observe was a very good result of Polish Tour Operators selling air tickets. Itaka , Rainbow and Ecco Holidays all 3 of them registered results better than the market average. It’s good to see the willingness of these operators to buy regular tickets and support  long-haul operations. New direct destinations like Delhi and Colombo were strongly supported by group sales of polish TOs.

Incentive agents served by consolidators growing even more

More than +30% this was the result of consolidators serving Incentive agents. Market leader Primapol was followed by Time4Travel, Profitravel and Flugo. The incentive segment was the most promising before the Covid era.

Good results for long haul flights would not be possible without LOT accelerating competition

It’s obvious that the good conditions of LOT have helped to develop long-haul tourism in Poland. Direct flights to China, Japan Corea, India, Singapore and Sri Lanka changed polish tourism totally. Competition with Gulf carriers resulted in better prices and accessibility to the market, especially seen in the case of Colombo and Den Pasar. In both cases, prices were lowered big time. Air China with its cheap tickets to Vietnam and Thailand played important role in that process too.

Plans of LOT to grow in Asia and America – new players to come

Due to the visa waiver program LOT has accelerated its long-haul expansion in America. Adding Los Angeles San Francisco and Miami to its network. Asia seemed to be a second priority.  LOT board members clearly stated about ongoing projects to open new direct flights.  On top of the list there were  Vietnam, India( Banglore or Bombay)  seasonal Bangkok was also under consideration.

Polish market was  under loop by several foreign airlines. Rumors about a direct flight to Thailand and Vietnam were very common. Seems that companies were working on that project finally opted for Prague airport mainly because of incoming traffic potential. Still outgoing potential of 40 million pax  Polish markets is hugely underestimated.

Post Covid medium-haul starting first than it will be time for the long haul too

On November 18^th LOT has announced the start of sales of its summer medium-haul flights

LOT plans to re-enter on charter market as anti-Covid strategy worked well during summer 2020

We could hear clearly the statement that LOT is determined to re-enter the charter market on a bigger scale. Huge public aid is going to be authorized very soon. This will help with fleet adjustment to the charter segment needs too. So soon we can also expect plans for long haul leisure flights for 2021. Hope the covid will gone and the Polish market will once more show its dynamism and growing importance for Incoming countries.