Why invest in Krakow?
Location
Located in the south of Poland, Krakow is a two hour drive from both Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In addition it is a great base for exploring the Zakopane and the Tatra National Park, located in the Carpathian mountain range on the Polish – Slovakia border.
Krakow is at the crossroads of Germany and the Ukraine as well as Scandinavia and the South of Europe.
Poland’s capital of culture
Krakow is undoubtedly one of Europe’s most beautiful cities and unquestionably Poland’s cultural capital. Brighter than Vienna, cheaper than Prague and ever so slightly eccentric, the old royal capital and intellectual epicentre of Poland is a work of art. Full of towers, cathedrals, castles and a warren of beautiful cobbled streets, unlike many Central European cities it was miraculously untouched by World War II and was named the European city of culture in 2000. The Old Town (Stare Miasto) is dominated by the magnificent Main Market Square, reputed to be the largest in Europe. Krakow was home to Pope John Paul II who served the city for many years as its archbishop. In the likely event that John Paul II should become beatified, it is likely that Krakow with become a pilgrimage destination for millions of Catholics.
Centre of academic excellence
Krakow is Poland’s equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge in the UK and has historically always been the aristocratic and academic hub of Poland. Host to Poland’s most prestigious university, Jagallonian, and an additional eighteen other colleges and centres of higher education and nineteen science institutions, approximately 170,000 students live in Krakow.
Transport links
Air
Krakow’s Balice International Airport is now serviced by nineteen airlines including many of the new “budget” airlines, such as Easyjet, Ryanair, Central Wings and Sky Europe. This has contributed to the explosion in the number of tourists visiting Krakow in recent years.
Balice Airport is 30 minutes by bus to the city centre or 20 minutes by taxi. In addition a proposed new high speed rail link to the airport will result in a reduced travel time by train to the city centre of 12 minutes.
A second airport terminal is also under construction at Balice Airport, which is being built to cope with growing demand from the 8 million people living within a 100 kilometre (90 minutes by car) radius of Krakow. This is by far the biggest catchments area in terms of population of any airport in Poland.
Source: Balice international airport website
Rail
Krakow is well connected to Warsaw by train with express trains running hourly to the capital with a travel time of approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Road
There is still much room for improvement in Krakow’s roads, with currently only 3% of Poland’s roads meeting European standards. As a result large portions of European funds are being invested in the road infrastructure, such as the renovation and extension of Krakow’s main ring road, and the modernisation and expansion of the A4 motorway from Krakow to the German border. Once complete it is anticipated the journey time to the German border will be only four hours.
Business and technology centre
A number of companies have invested heavily in or relocated to Krakow. Examples of this are:
- Philip Morris (USA) paid 218 million Euros for 33% of the Krakow Tobacco Plant.
- Carrefour (France) has built a 25 million Euro shopping centre.
- Ikea, Tesco and Casino are other examples.
Krakow Technology Park (“KTP”) was set up in 1998. The main reason for opening KTP with a status of “special economic zone” was to support industry restructuring. This objective has largely been fulfilled. Currently Krakow is regarded as a high-tech development city and KTP is a showcase of this.
Tourist destination
Krakow’s old town was included in the UNESCO original list of world heritage sites. The region also boasts three other UNESCO sites within a 50 kilometre radius of Krakow, including Auschwitz.
Krakow is currently undergoing a tourist boom. Between 2003 and 2004 the number of tourists grew by 1 million to 6.4 million and figures for 2005 are estimated to be around 10 million. In 2004, foreigners accounted for 57% of tourists, up from 51% in 2003.
Given a foreign visitor spends on average 193 Euros compared to 76 Euros for a Polish visitor, this is likely to further boost the Krakow economy.
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