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Support for the Development of Tourism from European Funds in the Eastern Poland Region in the Years 2014-2020

Summary Subject and purpose of work: The article presents the diversity of the use of EU funds for tourism in Poland in the region of Eastern Poland in the years 2014–2020. The focus was on indicating the regional differentiation of the size and type structure of projects. Materials and methods: The information base was data on projects co-financed from EU funds, collected in the National Information System (KSI SIMIK 2014-2020). Results: In all voivodships, both in terms of the number of projects and their values, projects in the field of culture (cultural heritage, cultural institutions, cultural events) definitely dominated. They constituted over 50% of the total number of all projects and 65% of their total value. Conclusions: In the years 2014-2020 tourism was included in the Regional Operational Programs indirectly, which impacted on the nature of implemented projects. Between them dominated projects related to the modernization and preservation of tourism resources, especially cultural projects.


Introduction
Poland's accession to the European Union opened up the tourism sector and entities involved in shaping the conditions for tourism development (territorial self-governments, tourist organizations and others) unknown perspectives, in particular the possibility of overcoming existing physical infrastructure problems. Access to structural funds in the period [2004][2005][2006], and later in 2007-2013, enabled the creation and modernization of accommodation and catering facilities, as well as sports and recreation and cultural related infrastructure, which contributed to the improvement of tourist attractiveness of municipalities, towns and regions (Parzych, 2017). In 2007-2013, Regional Operational Programs (RPO), which are the main source of funding for tourist projects in Poland, allocated EUR 2.77 billion (14% of the sum of RPO funds) for tourism and their main beneficiary were local self-government units (Panasiuk, 2016). Beneficiaries were large municipalities with a highly developed tourist function and municipalities with tourist resources, which seen tourism as a factor of improving residents' quality of life. Tourism in this period has been included directly in four national programs (Innovative Economy Operational Programme, Development of Eastern Poland OP, Human Capital Operational Programme and Rural Development Programme for 2007-2013) and 16 Regional Operational Programs (ROPs), identifying directly the areas of tourism support and type of interventions. In the new programming period, covering the years 2014-2020, there have been changes in the process of supporting tourism development. Funding tourism interventions has been very limited, and tourism enterprises and organizations have the opportunity to apply for financial support not directly dedicated to the tourism sector (Panasiuk, 2016). This paper is devoted to the use of EU funds in tourism development in the period 2014-2020, on the example of the macroregion of Eastern Poland, comprising Lublin, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie and Warmińsko-mazurskie voivodeships. This region, neighboring directly with Ukraine, Belarus and the Kaliningrad Oblast and at the same time being the external border of the European Union, is still one of the least developed (one of the lowest GDP per capita in the EU28) and least competitive regions in the European Union (Annoni P., Dijkstra L, 2013). But in comparison to the rest of the country, the macroregion stands out with large forest complexes, a high share of protected and natural areas, rural and cultural landscape (sacred monuments and multiculturalism), low density population and low level of industrialization and urbanization. Natural and cultural resources are the important factor in the development of tourism (Kozak, 2011), especially active tourism, rural tourism and agritourism. At the same time, the poorly developed physical infrastructure and organizational base of tourism limit the possibilities of tourism development.

Material and methodology
The aim of the study is to assess the use of EU funds for the development of tourism in Eastern Poland in 2014-2020, and in particular to try to answer the following questions: 1. What type of tourism projects were co-financed by the EU funds ? 2. Are there significant differences between the voivodships of the Eastern Poland region in the way these funds are used? Methodology applied in the present study encompasses the method of literature studies, documentation analysis (review of the project database), statistical methods (grouping, counting) and descriptive methods. The time scope of the research covered the years 2014-2020, and the research material was data from the Central Telecommunication System SL2014 database (for the years 2014-2018), updated 30 September 2018. System SL2014 enabled the extraction of tourism projects based on titles and descriptions projects included in the projects database. On this basis, the following projects were distinguished: strictly tourist projects, i.e. projects having the word "tourism" in the title or description; projects that do not include the word "tourism" in the title or description, but have the potential to directly influence on the tourist attractiveness of the region (e.g. related to accommodation, gastronomy, tourist information, etc.); projects with the potential for indirect impact on the tourist attractiveness of the region (e.g. projects in the field of culture, sport, entertainment, recreation, revitalization and creating strategies and plans for tourism development). The assess of projects was made according to their number, total costs, value of co-financing from European Union funds and the topic of projects.
Projects financed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF) were analyzed. However, the study did not include projects financed from the European Social Fund (ESF), the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

Financing tourism development from European funds in 2014-2020
The 2007-2013 period has been an important one for the recognition at the European institutional level of the role of Tourism in the EU economy. According to the analysis conducted as part of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU, 2007), the main source of funding for tourismrelated projects were the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. In Poland, in the financial perspective 2007-2013, tourism projects, co-financed from European Union funds, were implemented under the Infrastructure and Environment OP, the Operational Program Development of Eastern Poland and sixteen
In the 2014-2020, tourism has been pushed to the margins of EU funding, which was accompanied by a lack of business continuity (Bosiacki, Panasiuk, 2017). This was the result of provisions specified in key EU and national documents, i.e. Europe 2020 2 and the National Development Strategy 2020 -Active society, competitive economy, efficient state (NDS 2020) 3 , setting directions for Poland's development until 2020. The new Europe strategy changed the EU approach to tourism, treating it as an area of competitiveness of EU enterprises 4 and emphasizing its links with the development of entrepreneurship.
When we compiling the information from the table, it should be noted that in this period tourism was only included as part of a more wider group of activities related to culture and cultural institutions as well as natural biodiversity and innovation.

Results, discussion, conclusions
In the years 2014-2018, a total of 483 tourism projects were implemented in Eastern Poland, which accounted for 32.2% of all tourism projects implemented in Poland in this period (total of 1498). The largest number of projects was carried out in Warmińsko-mazurskie (164), then in Lubelskie (93) Podkarpackie (90), Podlaskie (71) and Świętokrzyskie (65).
In 2014-2018, a total of 10396008,5 thousand PLN was spent on projects related to the development of tourism in Eastern Poland. Until 95% of expenditure came from Regional Operational Programmes (ROPs) of individual voivodships. This demonstrates the key importance of the ROPs and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in financing tourism projects. It is worth emphasizing that the share of co-funding from EU funds (different in individual voivodships and in different projects), was on average 63% for all voivodships.
Most of the tourist projects in the Eastern Poland region are cultural projects (a total of 227 projects), including renovation and restoration or modernization of historic buildings to comprehensive revitalization of downtown areas. The highest share of this project category was recorded in the Podkarpackie voivodship (64.4%), while in the remaining it was at the level of 50%. The exception is the Warmińskomazurskie voivodship, in which projects in the field of culture accounted for only 25.6% of all projects, and projects in the field of tourism infrastructure predominated (55.5%). In all voivodships, projects in the field of tourism promotion and information were implemented only to a small extent.
Projects involving the adaptation of historic buildings to tourist, recreational or cultural functions seem to be particularly important for the development of tourism. However, the analysis of the projects leads to the conclusion that the majority of historic buildings (e.g. granaries, manor houses, court outbuildings, market hall in Łomża) are of local importance, it does not constitute the core attraction of any wider tourist product, therefore it will require intensive marketing activities in the field of tourism promotion and information.
Religious buildings of great historical and architectural importance (e.g. Post-Camaldolese monastery in Wigry, church in Tykocin, cathedral complex in Frombork, Basilica of the Dominican Fathers in Lublin, churches in Włodawa, Sosnowica), which co-create a tourist product, had an limited impact on employment, local income or municipality budget.
A total of 179 projects were identified in the Eastern Poland region, including 46 projects in the field of modernization of the accommodation, covering 69% of the energy modernization of accommodation facilities (mainly hotels) through the installation of photovoltaics, thermo-modernization and the use of renewable energy sources. Other projects in this group concerned the construction of lodging facilities, such as boarding houses, summer houses and a complexes of summer houses and their equipment. The exceptions are the construction of the innovative campsite "Carowny Glamping" in the Świętokrzyskie voivodship in Lechów and the construction of an eco-pension in the Podkarpackie voivodship. Much more projects (133) concerned complementary infrastructure: 24 projects -construction and modernization of tourist routes, 20 projectsconstruction of sports and recreation complexes, 62 projects -construction and modernization of sports and recreation infrastructure and 27 the projectsspa infrastructure.
In the period 2014-2020, natural assets gives the way to cultural assets. Among the 60 projects co-financed from EU funds, dominated projects for the construction and modernization of tourist infrastructure of protected areas (33) and projects for green area revitalization for tourist purpose, e.g in Lipsk, Biskupiec, Morąg, Kolno, Międzyrzec, Grajewo, Jedwabne (19), then revitalization of historic parks (Durów, Goniądz, Olsztyn), modernization of the botanical garden (Kielce) and arboretum (Kamień) -8 projects. Most projects were located in the Podlaskie and Warmińsko-mazurskie voivodships.
Tourism projects in the area of promotion and information were in the region of Eastern Poland rarely implemented. In total, only 15 projects received financial support in all voivodships, including 1 project concerning the construction of a tourist information center (Nowe Miasto Lubawskie), 4 projects in the field of tourism promotion of tourist assets (Podkarpackie, Lubelskie voivodships, Wigry National Park) and 10 projects in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).