Przegląd Geograficzny T. 86 z. 4 (2014)

The opening of borders in 2012 changed a great deal where Polish-Russian relations are concerned. Before 2012, contacts between the citizens of Poland and inhabitants of Kaliningrad District were limited, with the border separating them being more in the nature of a barrier and line of separation restricting contacts between the neighbouring countries. A border of this kind was obviously a factor contributing to the peripherisation of the Polish-Russian borderland. In the whole of 2009 there were only 1 million crossings of the border in question. However, in the wake of the July 27th 2012 entry into force of the agreement on a visa-free zone and local border traffi c, more and more Russians from the Oblast of Kaliningrad chose to start visiting areas within the zone on the Polish side, as there are attractive from the tourism point of view, as well as offering places to relax and do shopping. In 2013 the number of crossings of the Polish-Russianborder exceeded 6 million.The introduction of visa-free traffi c has thus resulted in massive infl ows into Poland of inhabitants of Kaliningrad, who mostly spend their time in the large shopping centres, supermarkets and grocery shops. However, some Kaliningraders also travel to participate in the largest mass events held in Poland’s Tri-city of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot, and they are becoming more and more visible in the cityspace. There is no doubt that the high level of cross-border shopping activity and travel now has a key role to play in the economic development of the Polish borderland. While Polish citizens do not visit Kaliningrad as often as Russians visit Poland, they do make frequent crossings of the border to purchase Russian petrol, this being a wise decision given the fact that it is only around half as expensive. Overall, the opening of the border has led to a development of cross-border tourism, at the same time helping to improve relations between Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast, in line with a general willingness to learn and discover that is helping to gradually overcome stereotypes functioning within the neighbouring populations.Tourism is now therefore a popular activity for many people, and the development of the attendant infrastructure is proving very important for what are peripheral areas located in the borderland. This is in line with a general tendency for the type and level of openness of borders to exert a major infl uence on the nature and extent of the tourism capable of developing in their vicinity (Timothy, 2000).The main aim of this paper has thus been to present the infl uence of the opening-up of the border on the development of tourism in the Polish-Russian borderland.

24 cm

Celem artykułu jest prezentacja wyników badań dotyczących zmiany charakteru granicy polsko-rosyjskiej po wprowadzeniu umowy o małym ruchu granicznym. Analiza została oparta na danych empirycznych zgromadzonych metodą badań terenowych, na które składają się ankiety i wywiady z mieszkańcami i właścicielami obiektów gastronomiczno- noclegowych zlokalizowanych na terenie powiatów objętych porozumieniem o ruchu bezwizowym. Na podstawie uzyskanych wyników podjęto próbę oceny funkcjonowania granicy polsko-rosyjskiej po 2012 r. i jej wpływu na rozwój turystyki w regionie przygranicznym*.