Hellenic Business

Foreign football fans who travelled to Poland for Euro 2012 like the country -as many as 80 per cent are eager to come back in the future. They emphasize that Poles are very hospitable and have done a good job hosting the Championship.

This positive image of Poland emerges from a public opinion poll conducted by the PBS market research agency in Polish host cities during and shortly after the Euro 2012 group stage.  An impressive 92 per cent of foreign tourists and football fans spoke favourably of the Championship atmosphere, and 85 per cent felt safe in Poland. This message is reinforced by yet another statistic – while stadiums and fan zones attracted over 2.5 million people during group stage matches, a mere 101 public order incidents were reported.

Football supporters enjoyed themselves in the fan zones – 90 per cent of respondents held a positive opinion of the zones. They were happy with the assistance offered by volunteers at stadiums, fan zones and transport hubs.

Guests from abroad were also satisfied with Polish public transport. The railways were especially praised (by 79 per cent of respondents). This  could be thanks to a special working regime adopted by the Polish railways, with some trains delayed on purpose to take in all fans returning from matches and other running further than scheduled (e.g. after the Ireland-Croatia match Irish fans could travel as far as Torun on a Poznan-Gniezno train).

According to foreign fans and tourists,  Euro 2012 in Poland worked out much better than Euro 2008 in Austria. As many as 85 per cent of foreigners applauded the tournament’s organization in Poland, while Austria’s approval rating was just 68 per cent. Even the Austrians themselves admit that “Poland and Ukraine can serve as an example for other Euro hosts. The countries successfully coped with organizational problems and the local fans – with a few exceptions – gave a friendly reception to football supporters from other countries,” wrote the Austrian daily Die Presse in its recent article “Poland and Ukraine – Champions in Hosting Euro 2012”