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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
The Polish province of Podlaskie, which borders Belarus, has launched a programme subsidising tourist accommodation in the region. The scheme will offer visitors a voucher of up to 400 zloty (€96) to spend on various overnight facilities.
Podlaskie has been particularly affected by the ongoing border crisis in which tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers – mainly from Africa, Asia and the Middle East – have been trying to cross into eastern Poland with the encouragement and assistance of the Belarusian authorities.
Rusza Podlaski Bon Turystyczny! Od poniedziałku właściciele mogą zgłaszać do programu swoje obiekty noclegowe. Formularz zgłoszeniowy dostępny jest na stronie https://t.co/U3zcGB4gut.
🗓️ Aktywowanie bonów przez turystów będzie możliwe od 20 kwietnia.
Dofinansowanie do noclegu… pic.twitter.com/5whMQJhdFA
— Ministerstwo Sportu i Turystyki (@SPORT_GOV_PL) March 24, 2025
The “Podlaskie Tourism Voucher” programme will allow any residents of Poland who live outside of Podlaskie to claim a voucher which can be used to reduce the cost of a minimum two-night stay in participating accommodation facilities.
Tourists will receive a 200 zloty voucher for a stay at a farm, hostel or campsite, a 300 zloty voucher for a guest house, apartment or hotel with up to two stars, or a 400 zloty voucher for a hotel with three to five stars.
Visitors can generate vouchers on the programme’s website from 20 April. Vouchers will be released in successive rounds across the year to encourage tourism outside the summer months. The local government will spend 2 million zloty on the scheme this year.
“With this voucher we want to show that our province is very safe. We…want to encourage people living in other regions of Poland to choose [Podlaskie] as a place to relax,” said Łukasz Prokoryk, marshal of the Podlaskie province, quoted by the Gazeta Prawna daily.
Last year, the regional council for social dialogue (WRDS) as well as the authorities of the Białowieża National Park – home to what is left of the vast primeval forest that once stretched across the European lowlands – pointed to the ongoing migration crisis on Poland’s eastern border as a reason for a decrease in local tourism.
In response to the crisis, the government has introduced tough measures, such as an exclusion zone and the fortification of the border wall. Police officers serving on the border have been ordered to carry firearms due to “growing aggression” from migrants, including several attacks against officials and the death of a soldier.
As a result of the new measures, the number of attempted border crossings from Belarus to Poland fell by over 50% in the second half of last year.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Ministerstwo Turystyki i Sportu / X
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
