In 2024, the Tatra National Park was visited by 4.9 million tourists, setting a historical record. Records were also broken in the last two months of the year, November and December, when over 200,000 people went to the Tatra Mountains for the first time. In an interview with tvn24.pl, the director of TPN announces that due to the increasing pressure of humans on nature, the park authorities intend to introduce an unusual solution.
4.9 million. As the tvn24.pl portal found out, this is how many people visited the Tatra National Park (TPN) in 2024. This is the highest result in history, and amounts to approximately 400,000. more than in 2023.
Tourists thus broke the historical record set in 2021, when nearly 4.79 million people visited the Polish Tatra Mountains. Contrary to expectations, however, it was not possible to break the barrier of five million visits.
Read also: A big threat in the Tatra Mountains. “They can go down on their own”
View of the Tatra Mountains at sunrise from Spišská BiałaPAP/Grzegorz Momot
The number of tourists in this park was exceeded in 2014, and in 2018 there were almost 4 million of them.
The Tatra Mountains are more popular than national parks in the USA
The latest statistics show that the Polish Tatra Mountains are more popular than, among others, famous American national parks. According to data from the park manager in USA National Park Service institutions, fewer tourists in 2023 (the results for 2024 have not yet been announced) were, among others, Grand Canyon National Park (4.73 million visits), Yellowstone (4.5 million) and California's Yosemite Park (3.89 million).
Grand Canyon romeovip_md/Shutterstock
Not only 2024 was a record year for the Polish Tatra Mountains, but also its last two months. – In November and December there was never a “two” in front. And this time we had almost 208,000 tourists and over 217,000 tourists in these months, emphasized Szymon Ziobrowski, director of the Tatra National Park, in an interview with tvn24.pl.
The Tatra Mountains were most popular during the holiday months. Last year, in August alone, over 992,000 people hiked the Tatra trails. tourists, and slightly less in July – 832 thousand. The popularity of the Tatra Mountains in the summer was so great that… To get to Giewont, you had to queue on the trail for up to two hours.
Traffic jams in the Tatra Mountains. To reach the top, you sometimes have to wait up to two hoursTVN24
As every year, Morskie Oko is the most and unflaggingly popular among tourists. Only by entering Polana Palenica, this famous high-mountain lake was visited by 662,000 people from January to the end of November. tourists.
Read also: A father and an eight-year-old girl were stuck in the mountains. There is a police investigation
A thin layer of ice on Morskie OkoPAP/Grzegorz Momot
TPN wants to sell toilet bags to tourists
TPN representatives are satisfied with the popularity of the Polish Tatra Mountains, but at the same time they note that the tourist pressure on the highest mountains in our country is growing. Some commentators call for the introduction of entry limits to the park, as is the case, among others, in the USA. – We should not wait any longer to have a serious debate on limiting entries to the Tatra Mountains – said Lechosław Herz, naturalist, sightseeing expert and author of the book about the Tatra Mountains “Świsty i murruki” to “Gazeta Wyborcza”.
– We have no plans to limit entries for now. We will take possible actions in this direction when two indicators that are important to us start to decline: the number of chamois and marmot colonies in the Tatra Mountains – director Ziobrowski answers our questions.
However, the head of the TPN emphasizes that the park authorities are planning to introduce other solutions to limit the negative impact of tourists on nature. It's about ideas for dealing with dirt left around the trails by people who need to “relieve” themselves.
– We will start more intensive sewage management. This year we are starting an investment that will involve installing a sewage system in the Pisana clearing, where there will be stationary toilets instead of toilets. The sewage system will also be connected to Hala Gąsienicowa, where the shelter and Betlejemka (alpinists' training center – ed.) are located – explains Ziobrowski.
But what if the need arises far from toilets and shelters? – This year we would like to launch a service, probably for a fee, of carrying toilet bags. We will import them from the United States, because that's the only manufacturer we found there, and encourage tourists to use them, said the director of TPN.
Read also: The horse fell and the driver hit it in the mouth. Prosecutor's Office: There was no abuse
The bags would be sold – and most likely initially given away free of charge as part of a promotion – at the entrances to the park. The same bags were already available in the TPN in the past – and, as Szymon Ziobrowski says, free of charge for cavers, but they were not very popular. In 2022, one of the authors of the “Tatry” magazine wrote: “It is not an ordinary plastic bag for dog poop, but a whole package with granules absorbing moisture and odors, paper, a wet wipe and a string bag.”
“Response to growing turnout”
It's not just feces that are a problem for the park. Tourists leave mountains of garbage after their visits, including bottles, cans and food packaging. However, it sometimes happens that when cleaning places visited by tourists – for example as part of the “Clean Tatras” campaign – there are more “exotic” wastes, such as car parts or tires.
“Clean Tatras” campaign. They even find car parts in the mountainsTVN24
– We have one more answer to the growing attendance: the expansion of educational campaigns. Our educators have been walking around the park in popular places for several years now. We want to increase the number of such workers so that tourists can more easily meet them and hear about the place they are in, as well as about the needs and requirements related to nature conservation. The goal is to develop respect for nature, explained the director.
There are 275 km of marked hiking trails in the Polish Tatra Mountains with various levels of difficulty: from very easy to very difficult and equipped with safety devices such as chains, clamps and ladders. The trails in Tataty are marked with five colors: black, red, green, blue, yellow. The colors do not indicate the difficulty of the trail.
Main photo source: PAP/Grzegorz Momot