Business bosses looking to explore Polish market to boost Doncaster's tourism offer

Business Doncaster chief Chris Dungworth said the organisation wants to tap into the number of flights that come into Doncaster Sheffield Airport each week from a number of Polish cities.

Mr Dungworth said outbound flights to destinations in Poland including Warsaw, Gdánsk, Katowice, Krakow, Poznan and Wroclaw are often full and the aim was to bring more Polish tourists the other way to spend a weekend break in the borough.

One of the top aims of Business Doncaster is to increase the amount of overnight stays made by tourists.

The St Leger Festival at Doncaster Racecourse each year is one event that brings the overnight crowds but the organisation is looking at other ways to try and boost numbers throughout the year.

Mr Dungworth said: “We’re looking at going out to Poland this year to showcase Doncaster’s tourism industry and increasing links with them.

“We’re doing as much work as we can to promote Doncaster in terms of inward investment budget providing.

“It’s still very early stages but as a tourism team, we’re focussed on attracting visitors to Doncaster - our day visitor numbers are very good but what we do want to increase is our overnight stays.

“We see the Poland market as a potential - the number of flights in every week from Whizz Air and the team and myself have been out to Poland previously on private visits and we see the Polish people move around a lot and we want to impact on that and try and get them across to come and see Doncaster’s offer.

“We do see the planes full but we want to increase visitors this way - we’ve got a fantastic opportunity for Doncaster you look at some of the cities in Poland that people visit and it’s just as good in Doncaster for them to come over and fill our hotel rooms at weekends.”