Is it worth using public relations in tourism?

Public relations w turystyce to budowanie zaufania do miejsca, obiektu lub organizatora podróży zanim gość w ogóle zapyta o cenę – przez media, opinie, influencerów i własne kanały. Rynek na to zasługuje: z noclegów w Polsce skorzystało w 2025 roku 58,9 mln turystów, o 11,6% więcej niż rok wcześniej (GUS), więc konkurencja o uwagę i lojalność gości rośnie szybciej niż sama branża.

Tourism and public relations

Public relations activities in tourism mainly focus on creating a positive image – not necessarily of the product itself or the destination. brand image. Tourist attractions, hotels, regions, and tour operators also need PR tools that will make people eager to visit a given place. The main goals of PR in tourism are:

• inducing a desire to travel to a specific place, not just „somewhere over the water”,
• promotion of tourism products – packages, events, seasonal offers,
• increasing the visibility of the tourist destination in the media and on search engines,
• Maintaining guests’ satisfaction after arrival – because that’s what generates further recommendations.

PR in tourism therefore focuses both on the journey itself and on the places, hotels, and restaurants that together create the guest experience.

How many people travel around Poland – the scale of the market in numbers

According to data from the Central Statistical Office, 58.9 million tourists used accommodation facilities in Poland in 2025, which represents an increase of 11.6% compared to the previous year. This is a record, but also a sign: the market is growing faster than the number of accommodation places, so the battle is no longer just about attracting a guest, but about choosing your facility, not the one next door with the same standard and similar price.

What PR tools to use in tourism?

Public relations in tourism work as a promotional tool before a booking decision is made. Media that publish lists such as „best places/hotels/attractions” are particularly valuable – it’s worth making sure your property appears on them, especially in the age of high price competition. Reviews on travel blogs and well-prepared content are also helpful in building recognition. press releases about seasonal novelties.

• Cooperation with influencers – a person recommending a hotel or a region is able to attract real traffic, provided that their audience corresponds to the target group of the facility, and not just the number of followers.
• Participation in trade shows and industry events – direct contact with tour operators and industry media, which no post on social media can replace.
• Seasonal media relations – information about the opening of the season, a new attraction or record-breaking attendance is sent to the editorial staff of lifestyle and regional magazines before the competition does so.
• Managing opinions – a response to the review, even a negative one, within 24–48 hours, publicly and specifically, do not copy-paste the same formula.

Destination PR and individual property PR

It is worth distinguishing two levels of communication that often overlap in tourism, but follow different rules. PR for a destination – a region, a city, or a specific tourist route – is usually carried out by a tourism organization, a local government, or a trade association, and its goal is to build a general association of „it is worth coming here.” PR for a single property – a hotel, restaurant, or attraction – operates within this larger narrative, but it must also stand out from other properties in the same location.

A property that can combine its own communication with broader promotion of the region – for example, by referring to local events, routes, or attractions within a few kilometers – gains more than one that only talks about itself. Guests rarely choose a hotel that is isolated from what they can do in the area, so the property’s communication should answer not only the question „where to stay,” but also „what to do here.”.

Sustainable tourism as a communication topic

The growing number of tourists, mentioned in GUS data, also means an increasing burden on popular destinations – crowding, littering, pressure on infrastructure. More and more visitors, especially younger ones, are paying attention to whether the facility and the region care about the environment and the local community, rather than just the number of visitors. Communicating real actions – waste segregation, water consumption reduction, cooperation with local suppliers instead of imported products – is a topic that is gaining importance and sets the facility apart from competitors that only talk about price and room standards.

Seasonality – a challenge that needs to be planned in advance

The biggest mistake in tourism PR is communicating only when the season is already underway. It is worth planning the communication at least a quarter of a year in advance:

1. Before the season – information about new products, investments, and changes in the offer. This is material that lifestyle editors plan in advance.
2. During the season – ongoing relationships, cooperation with creators, responding to guests’ feedback on a regular basis, not just once a week.
3. After the season – summary, request for recommendations from satisfied guests, preparation of materials for use in the next year.
4. Outside of the season – maintaining brand visibility: intimate events, last-minute offers for other segments of guests, stories from the kitchen or the facility.

Video content and social media in the promotion of places and facilities

Before someone books a stay, they usually watch—not read—first. Short videos showing the view from the room window, breakfast on the terrace, or the atmosphere of an evening by the campfire sell the promise of an experience more effectively than the best-written description of the offer. Therefore, in the communication of tourist properties, it is worth investing in several types of video content:

• Short reports from the current season – weather, attractions, local events, so that a potential guest can see what the place looks like now, not just in archival photos.
• Materials from behind the scenes„ – preparing the rooms, kitchen work, and the history of the facility – build a sense of authenticity that is difficult to replicate in paid advertising.
• Reports from the events – fairs, festivals, local events organized in the region in which the facility takes part in or supports.
• Answers to the most common questions from guests in the form of short recordings – this is material that simultaneously promotes and actually facilitates the decision to book.

The key is regularity, not one-off production. The profile, on which the latest recording dates back to a year ago, works to the detriment of the facility more than its absence – suggesting that something has stopped working within the company.

Cooperation with travel agencies and booking portals

PR in tourism is not only about communicating with the final guest, but also with intermediaries: travel agencies, booking portals, and organizers of group tours. Good relationships with these partners – current promotional materials, quick response to inquiries about availability, clear terms of cooperation – translate into whether the property makes it onto recommended listings or is overlooked in favor of competitors with similar standards. It is also worth remembering that reviews left on booking portals today have a greater influence on a guest’s decision than many advertising campaigns – and should be treated as a full-fledged communication channel, not just a place to check once in a while.

When something goes wrong – a crisis in the tourism industry

A canceled flight, a hotel malfunction, a guest complaint that breaks out on social media – the tourism industry is particularly vulnerable to image crises because customers share their impressions in real time, often even before leaving the property. What exactly is a crisis like this and how to recognize it before it escalates, we describe in the text managing a crisis of image, And we write about the mechanism of the crisis in social media in the guide effective communication in a crisis situation.

Hospitality of the staff as an invisible element of PR

No media campaign will make up for a bad experience at the reception or restaurant of the property – and it is these moments, not the content on social media, that most often end up in reviews. Therefore, the external communication of a tourist property should go hand in hand with investing in training staff who have direct contact with the guest. A promise made in a promotional material that is not confirmed in real contact harms the brand more than the absence of that promise at all – because it builds disappointment instead of a neutral impression.

The most common PR mistakes in tourism

• Photos that do not correspond to reality. The discrepancy between the promotional material and what the guest sees on site ends with a wave of negative reviews, not just a single complaint.
• No response to reviews. Silence looks like a lack of interest in the guest’s opinion, even if the situation was resolved over the phone.
• Collaboration with an influencer without matching the audience. Large reach, but a different target group is a cost without any sales effect.
• Communication only during the season. The brand disappears from the radar for the rest of the year and has to build its recognition anew with each season.
• One channel of communication. Relying solely on one social platform exposes the brand to a decline in reach when the algorithm changes.

The language of communication – concrete instead of superlatives

The tourism industry tends to overuse the words „unique”, „unrepeatable” or „magical” – so often that they have ceased to mean anything to the reader. A description that says „room with a view of the lake, balcony 6 m², breakfast served from 7:00” sells better than a promise of „unforgettable experiences” because it provides concrete details that a guest can actually compare the offer with. The same principle applies to press materials and descriptions on social media – the more verifiable facts, the lower the risk of disappointment upon arrival.

At Commplace, we collect the results of PR activities in tourism – media mentions, website traffic, and requests for quotes – in one place. Commwork®AI, Alongside the seasonal campaign calendar, this makes it possible to see which campaign actually resulted in inquiries and which only resulted in likes.

How to measure the effects of PR in tourism

The number of publications or likes is not enough to assess whether the PR efforts actually paid off. Instead, it is worth tracking the sales metrics more closely: the number of inquiry requests after a specific publication, the change in traffic on the booking page during the campaign compared to the same period a year ago, and not just the month before – seasonality in tourism can distort conclusions if a high season is compared with a low one. Only then can one assess whether the increase was due to communication efforts or simply to the season.

How Commplace helps

Commplace conducts PR and communication activities for properties and brands in the tourism industry – from seasonal strategies, through media relations, to cooperation with influencers and handling crisis situations. If you want your property’s PR to be evaluated based on real guest inquiries, rather than the number of likes, see, How we conduct public relations.

It is also worth reading: media relations – how to build relationships with journalists and public relations instruments.

Sources: The Central Statistical Office, press release „Fashion for Poland! 2025 marked by record figures in tourism”, stat.gov.pl, 6.02.2026.