Kraków. This is where you are!
We set new challenges for ourselves in the world of continuous changes. We are opening a new chapter of thinking about the creation and promotion of Kraków’s image. Kraków5020 has just gained two new promotion tools: it became the operator of the ICE Kraków Congress Centre and the PLAY KRAKÓW platform.
This model of operation, which involves the management of many promotion tools in the modern world, is called the Destination Management Organisation (DMO).
Kraków as a city has the potential to become the capital of congresses, fairs and conferences from around the world, and Kraków5020 has been established to make use of this potential.
Kraków5020 is a municipal company created by the Mayor of the City of Kraków for the purpose of destination management. This is DMO – the comprehensive creation, management and promotion of the city’s image in co-operation with many entities from various fields. Kraków5020 is intended to strengthen Kraków’s image around the world as an open, tolerant and attractive European metropolis – a city of world cultural heritage and a thriving academic centre. The goal of the company is to engage Kraków in the organisation of international, academic, cultural and sports events, to contribute to the development of business and religious tourism and to create conditions for the location of prestigious institutions and seats of large domestic and foreign enterprises in Kraków. ‘This is where you are. We put Kraków in the first place as a city that speaks an open language and can serve as a role model. By using the company’s tools to co-ordinate promotion, we can reach a bigger audience in Poland and abroad,’ says Izabela Błaszczyk, the president of Kraków5020. ‘This is how we pursue strategic goals set out in the Kraków Development Strategy “This Is Where I Want to Live”. Kraków 2030.’
The activity of Kraków5020 is intended to bring about business success and the resulting economic success of the city and thus bring benefits to all inhabitants of Kraków – not only those who work in the tourist, hotel or catering industry. Profits for Kraków mean higher tax revenue for the city, and this translates into a better quality of life in the city, including better pavements, streets, investments in nurseries and kindergartens, or in a functional public transport system.
The DMO model allows us to estimate current image needs of the city of Kraków, engages a broad circle of partners in co-operation and opens up the possibility of using alternative solutions. ‘We analyse directions of development and effectiveness of actions of the tourism and MICE industry, and we monitor the impact of the functioning of individual industries, businesses and enterprises on the global prosperity of the city,’ explains Paula Fanderowska, Deputy President for Marketing and ICE Kraków. ‘In doing this, we try to follow the best examples – DMO institutions promoting the city exist also in London, Brussels, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam, Madrid and other cities.’
Kraków5020 employs many tools, including its own brands and partnerships. The company’s own brands are the ICE Kraków Congress Centre and a hybrid studio that is located there – our innovative project that puts ICE Kraków in the world forefront of conference centres. Such studios in buildings are a new post-pandemic standard being implemented around the world – this action is consistent with the recommendation of the ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association). The studio will be available for rent by ICE Kraków’s customers. All organisers of events can use them for their own projects,’ assures Robert Rozciecha, Deputy President for Technologies and Investments.
Other brands are VOD PLAY KRAKÓW (a city platform), PLAY KRAKÓW NEWS and Wyspiański Pavilion. Here, we can mention also a series of ICE Classic concerts held regularly in the Congress Centre, Hello ICE Kraków – a series of open events for families, Slow Saturday – a series of slow life events well-known among Kraków inhabitants, or a series of CSR campaigns. Partnerships pursued by Kraków5020 include projects of Kraków Network – an association of MICE industry entities from Kraków, and Power of 4 – an association of conference facilities in Poland.
In November, Kraków5020 will manage the InfoKraków Tourist Information Network, which comprises the Tourist Service Centre at Powiśle, points in the Cloth Hall, ICE Kraków, the International Airport in Balice, at Szpitalna 25, Józefa 7, św. Jana 2 and Zgody 7. The company plans to take over the management of the Lem Planet Centre of Literature and Language.