CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DESIRED PRODUCTS AND TOURIST SERVICES

An important element for the development of the Rabka-Zdrój Commune is the promotion of local products with which the inhabitants of the region identify themselves. The commune can boast of many projects and products that are associated with the commune - these are cultural, spa and regional values. A local product is most often a product or service with which the inhabitants of the Region identify themselves. It is produced in a non-industrial, non-mass-produced manner, from local raw materials or using local production methods. A local product is also a product that is everyday, common for the inhabitants of the Region, while for outsiders it is something unique and specific.

Tourist products implemented in the Rabka-Zdrój commune are as follows:

• Rabcio Puppet Theater - since 1949, performances based on native folklore and traditions, also telling about old folk heroes. The repertoire is clearly an attempt to maintain the former plays, classic fairy tales and contemporary fairy tales for small audiences and items related to the culture of the region. On the other hand, we can see the desire to introduce new items, give the old ones a different staging and set design, and enable author and directorial rehearsals.
• Rabka Handicraft Zone - educational activities for children and teenagers. Learning how to make wooden and glass ornaments, and tissue paper crafts. For adults, classes include washing on the plate, mangle, silage production. Health Resort Rabka SA
• Medicinal brine springs - the greatest wealth of the Rabka Spa, are the springs of medicinal saline waters. The healing, care and prophylactic effects of brine have been known for centuries. Natural brines in Rabka, unpolluted by civilization, not polluted with chemicals, heal diseases of the respiratory, circulatory, nervous and musculoskeletal systems.
• Galeria Pod Lilianną - native artists conduct educational workshops here, you can also see various types of handicrafts, including: wooden sculptures, ceramics, pottery, painting, paintings painted on glass, embroidery, items made of tissue paper and metalwork.

An important point is that Rabka-Zdrój itself can be considered a tourist product. All activities must lead to the development and creation of the product as a recognizable brand, highly appreciated by the consumers of the tourist and spa services market. To   expected   trends in contemporary movement   tourism, along with the growing interest in trips "for health and beauty" and the prevailing Covid-19 epidemic and after analyzing the tourist potential of the area of Rabka-Zdrój location,   it should be stated that   spa tourism should be a branded tourist product of the commune. For patients, the most valuable attributes of the brand are high-quality treatment services, pleasant, harmonious surroundings, transport accessibility of attractive points in the spa, good information about undemanding tourist routes. IN   In this respect, similar expectations will be characteristic of people with small children, for whom the issue of children's corners and places to play meeting higher safety standards will be additionally important.

Planned / desired products in the commune include:

• promotional materials showing the tourist potential of the region / area - leaflets, brochures, guides to the region, maps, etc.,
• virtual walks, videos, guides,
• promotional films, publications,
• ornaments / jewelry,
• toys, gadgets, mascots,

For tourists looking for cultural attractions, you should prepare information about routes, e.g. wooden architecture, personalities, culture, objects currently associated with a spa town, and regional culture.

The recipient from the business group will be interested in the topics assigned to the above-mentioned groups, as well as the offer of Spa centers, the possibility of using regenerative treatments, a swimming pool or a gym.

The expectations of people interested in practicing sports, winter sports, horse riding, cycling, Incentives (bond building, field games, integration) are also important.

A great attraction of the health resort is also its specific spa and healing infrastructure, not found in other holiday resorts. In Rabka-Zdrój there are saline graduation towers and mineral water pump rooms, a natural medicine facility, spa clinics, brine swimming pools, as well as a spa park and special walking areas - Bulwary nad Poniczanka, widely used by both patients and tourists. However, the basic infrastructure base needs to be modernized.

The overriding goal of the activities undertaken - in the next few years - is to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of the Rabka-Zdrój commune, to stop the degradation of disadvantaged areas and to restore these places to their original functions - important from the point of view of local development -. This will be done through a number of smaller and larger projects, both infrastructural and "soft", implemented to an equal extent by local government and public institutions, as well as by non-governmental organizations, entrepreneurs and other important entities of local development.

The aim of the planned investments is the development of generally available products and the tourist and recreational offer of Rabka-Zdrój and building the image of the spa as an attractive tourist area with a comprehensive offer that stands out on a national scale, combining spa, recreational and tourist values.

The specific goal is to make the stay offer more attractive and, consequently, to further increase the tourist traffic in Rabka-Zdrój by building new attractions in the public space. The implementation of the projects will contribute to the increased interest in Rabka-Zdrój and, consequently, to an increased number of tourists and patients visiting the city. This, in turn, will be an element - through the development of public space in accordance with the leading directions of Rabka-Zdrój development and its spa profile - of consistent creation of conditions for economic development and locating new investments related to the tourist and recreational function.

Planned activities in the near future include:

• limiting individual transport and introducing electric buses in the city and in the health resort, parking lots outside the spa zone and the city center,
• construction of bicycle paths,
• rebuilding the little one wooden architecture from the spa's greatest splendor. The use of beautiful historic buildings for cultural and museum purposes, but also atmospheric restaurants with music,
• thermal drilling in the spa,
• gondola lift to Luboń Wielki,
• construction viewing platforms along with   tourist infrastructure.

The commune is ready to participate in the development of new attractions in the commune and help investors in obtaining any arrangements or organizing meetings. With entrepreneurs in mind, the commune is ready to introduce reliefs and incentives to make it easier for investors to decide on the location of investments in the commune.

In addition, Rabka-Zdrój faces the challenge of redefining its functions and

setting development directions for the coming years. It seems that both own resources (tourist and spa values and the tradition of the place), as well as the observed trends - both global and more and more common in Poland - which place more and more importance and resources on a healthy, active lifestyle and health prophylaxis that the dominant tourist and spa function of Rabka-Zdrój in the coming years is not subject to any discussion. It is commonly believed that health tourism, including spa tourism, will be one of the most dynamically developing areas of tourism. It is undoubtedly connected with the aging of societies, the general increase of awareness and willingness to take care of one's own health among both younger and older people, and with the growing wealth of societies. This issue is becoming even more topical and very important in terms of the coronavirus epidemic. Today, apart from the traditional model of spa treatment, there is also a dynamically developing spa tourism. Wellness or SPA treatments offered as part of weekend or multi-day trips are gaining great popularity. The choice of the place and form of recreation is determined by the consumer enjoying higher income, as well as the increase in awareness and high level of pro-health education in the society, the need to care for health, physical condition and appearance.

Rabka-Zdrój is ready to prepare an attractive, innovative and competitive offer, including therapeutic, prophylactic and rehabilitation, tourist and recreational, sports and recreational, cultural and other services, which will allow it to develop effectively in the future. One of the most important challenges faced by Rabka-Zdrój is going beyond the provision of services related only to spa treatment and prophylaxis, and constantly expanding its activities with an offer related to tourist recreation based on natural values and an expanding cultural offer. The starting point for dynamizing the development of Rabka-Zdrój and increasing its competitiveness, both in the internal (national) and European dimension, is to increase the attractiveness of the town by improving the broadly understood socio-economic infrastructure serving the basic, i.e. tourist and spa function of the city, and thus building a competitive advantage of the health resort in relation to other similar centers. The new way of looking at the development of the spa and tourist function of Rabka-Zdrój should also take into account the changing profile of the recipient of services in health resorts. Basically, two dominant groups should be distinguished - the elderly, which is related to the ongoing demographic processes and the growing richer of society (an increasing number of elderly people who want to maintain a good quality of life for as long as possible and have financial resources to do so) and young, professionally active people, who care about health, a healthy lifestyle and maintaining physical condition and good appearance. This trend should also be seen as development opportunities for Rabka-Zdrój and consistently improve and expand the offer with an ever richer set of attractive products in the field of medicine, culture and recreation, and combine treatments and preventive health care with active tourist recreation in an innovative way. This means the need to expand the infrastructure complementing the sphere of preventive health care, tourism and recreation. Thus, the improvement of the existing infrastructure, in particular in terms of:

• consistent improvement of the quality and attractiveness of spa facilities, including the Spa Park and its surroundings;
• modernizing and making the available tourist and recreational offer more attractive, including extending the existing ski stations and transforming them into modern all-year-round facilities;
• better use of the rich cultural and technical heritage;
• strengthening and expanding new spaces for cultural and entertainment events;
• organizing public spaces that are the spa's showcase, including better use of historic buildings that could support the spa's functions;
• greater openness to the profile related to business and training tourism (taking advantage of the proximity of the Krakow agglomeration and convenient transport connection);
• expansion of sports fields, exercise rooms, open-air gym;
• better management and use of rivers and streams flowing through Rabka-Zdrój for the needs of the tourist and recreational product, as well as a more sophisticated offer, e.g. golf courses or climbing walls;
• radical improvement of air quality in the area of the health resort.