Polish seniors flock to Spain for sun, subsidies
Polish seniors are flocking to Spain, drawn by a cosy Andalusian object and government subsidies for seniors aged 55 and older, designed to boost a traveller trade in a low season.
"Without a assistance of a government in Madrid -- that amounts to 130 euros ($175) per chairman -- and that of my children, we couldn't means a vacation like this," pronounced Tarsylia Juszkiewicz, 67, uninformed off a licence moody from Spain's Malaga, behind home to Warsaw.
She spent 8 days with 3 friends in a four-star hotel in Benalmadena, on Spain's Mediterranean Costa del Sol, an unheard of pleasure for a Polish pensioner.
"I've never had such a lush vacation before," pronounced Juszkiewicz, who pronounced her small monthly state grant alone would never assent such an extravagance.
Average state retirement pensions total during some 400 euros per month (535 dollars) in Poland, an ex-communist nation that assimilated a European Union in 2004 though is not nonetheless a partial of a eurozone.
"The airplane, hotel, meals, insurance, dual guided visits for usually 1,800 zloty (403 euros, 540 dollars)," Juszkiewicz marvelled, observant a Spanish government paid a 130 euros additional directly to Spanish tourism organisations.
"We can comfortable a aged skeleton a bit in a sun," joked Irmina Piatek, who as a oldest of these 4 ladies will shortly spin 80.
"In Spain, it's still comfortable with a heat during 24 degrees C (75.2 F). Now we have to get used to Polish continue once again and a temperatures are around zero. Paradise is finished!" she exclaims.
All 4 holiday-makers certified that "without a funding programme, we would positively have had to stay during home."
Launched in 2009, a program, called Europe Senior Tourism (EST), was combined for residents 55 years of age and comparison from comparison EU states, particularly poorer ex-communist newcomers to a 27-member confederation including Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.
Better off seniors from Britain and Germany are already informed with Spain and can improved means to holiday there, so EU newcomers are enjoying a advantages of a sponsored tours, an organiser explained.
"The Spanish supervision is targeting new markets, generally from countries where seniors frequency select to revisit Spain," pronounced Edyta Romanowska, an EST plan employee.
She described it as a win-win conditions on both sides.
"Spain is also unequivocally benefiting. Each euro spent on a comparison caller earns Spain 1.30 euros or some-more indirectly," she added. "The idea is to give a hotel zone some business in a off-season and to emanate jobs."
To attract a limit series of tourists, seniors can be accompanied by a younger person, who also is also authorised for a 130-euro subsidy.
Anna Walicka, 63, was means to entice her daughter Barbara, who is 40.
"My daughter also perceived a assistance of a Spanish government," a superb licentiate told AFP during Warsaw's Frederic Chopin general airport.
Poles are holding full advantage of a bargain, creation adult about 20 percent of a 100,000 seniors who have trafficked to Spain during a initial dual seasons of a EST plan in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Greek seniors took initial mark with 15,254 visitors in 2009-10, though Poles outpaced them in a second book of a module in 2010-11, with 12,964 visitors.
"Romanians and Bulgarians also responded enthusiastically this year," Romanowska said, saying "the Eastern European marketplace has outrageous intensity and a splendid future."
Tourist Walicka had usually one regret.
"It's a empathize that a Spanish supervision usually contributes to one week of vacation, we would really most like to have stayed longer," she said.
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