Evolving tourism on the Baltic Sea coast: perspectives on change in the Polish maritime borderland

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis case study considers the touristic characteristics of maritime borders on the Baltic Sea coast. A sequential model is proposed to describe cross-border tourism development, tourist flows and tourism partnerships, and takes account of the particularities of transnational tourism development on the Polish Baltic coast. The paper questions whether and how tourism contributes to transboundary integration and the movement of people in the southern Baltic from the perspective of border changes between Poland and its neighbors. The southern Baltic is a newly emerging space for cross-border tourism development that is undergoing various levels of integration, thanks to the abolition of traditional border functions. The article tries to answer a question about tourism’s role in the integration and the movement of people in the southern Baltic from the perspective of changes in border functions in Poland and its neighboring states.