Challenges for Polish ferry market development in Baltic Sea Region

Polish ferry market has become one of the prime segments of ferry shipping in Baltic Sea Region. It dominates in ferry industry in South Baltic. The ferry cargo and passenger traffic has been growing steadily since Poland’s accession to the European Union. The estimates show that in 2017 the operators transported more than 1,2 million passengers and over 520 thousand cargo vehicles between ports in Poland and Sweden. The increase in trade turnover between Scandinavia and Central Europe as well as growth of tourism affect the demand for ferry transport. The aim of this paper is to explore the prime determinants influencing the development of Polish ferry shipping and to research the challenges that carriers operating the ferry services from Poland to Sweden must face such as internal competition between the operators in Polish market, competition from German and Lithuanian routes and low cost airlines as well as increasing trade volumes. The research hypothesis is: the growth of trade between Scandinavia and Central Europe as well as tourism traffic will increase the demand for ferry transport from Polish ports. Detailed research hypotheses are that: ferry services between Poland and Sweden constitute the primary market on the South Baltic and new tonnage investments to increase the capacity have to be taken.