Orbis (Polish travel agency)
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Orbis is the oldest travel agency in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, founded in 1920 in Lwów (now: Lviv,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
). Currently, it is the largest hotel group in Poland and
Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
, and parent company of Orbis S.A. Capital Group, which has nine subsidiaries. Its name comes from a
Latin language Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of t ...
word Orbis, which means world.


History

Polish Travel Office was opened in 1920 in Lwow, and among its founders are bankers Ernest Adam, Maksymilian Liptay and Józef Radoszewski, as well as politician Wladyslaw Keslowicz, Count Aleksander Skarbek, and lawyer Ozjasz Wasser. Their target was to create a travel office with international standards of service, which would provide services for the citizens of the newly created Second Polish Republic. Orbis quickly developed, and by the year 1925 it had as many as 28 offices. In 1928 it was granted the status of a national travel agency, and in 1933, after its shares had been purchased by
PKO Bank Polski Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna (also known as ''PKO Bank Polski S.A.'', ''PKO BP S.A.'') is Poland's largest bank founded in 1919. It provides services to individual and business clients. The core business activity of ...
, main office was moved to
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
. Orbis continued to prosper, by 1939 it had 136 offices in Poland and 19 abroad. It employed app. 500 travel agents, and had four hotels with 360 rooms. The office ceased its operations during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, during which most of its property was looted or destroyed. After the war, the only foreign offices still operating were those in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
,
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
, and
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. Orbis was reopened on December 13, 1944, in Lublin. In
Communist Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
it was a state-owned enterprise, and in the late 1940s, it was mostly involved in inter-city bus services as well as mass meetings. From the 1950s, Orbis took control over a network of pensions, with 5,000 beds. Furthermore, Orbis serviced sleeping and restaurant train cars. In 1951, nine top Polish hotels joined the agency. They were regarded as high-standard hotels, and enjoyed monopoly on both foreign and Polonia visitors. After the Polish thaw of 1956, Orbis returned to the international market. It organized foreign visits for Polish tourists, mostly to Eastern Bloc countries. Among the most popular locations, were
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
n resorts on the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
coast,
Lake Balaton Lake Balaton () is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and ...
in
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, and the
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
n coast on the
Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...
. Furthermore, Orbis offered cruises on the TSS Stefan Batory and rented Soviet ships. In 1979, some 1,5 million people were served by Orbis. In the 1960s and the 1970s, as many as 34 new hotels were built by Orbis. Among them were two properties in Warsaw managed by the American
Inter-Continental Hotels Intercontinental is an adjective to describe something which relates to more than one continent. Intercontinental may also refer to: * Intercontinental ballistic missile, a long-range guided ballistic missile * InterContinental Hotels Group (IH ...
chain, the Hotel Forum (built in 1972 - 74; now Novotel Warszawa Centrum), and the Hotel Victoria Inter-Continental (built in 1974 - 76; now Sofitel Victoria Warszawa). In 1980, the company had 555 buses and 373 other vehicles, and it owned 60% of all hotel beds in Poland. The hotels were occupied with half the visitors being foreign, who paid with
hard currency In macroeconomics, hard currency, safe-haven currency, or strong currency is any globally traded currency that serves as a reliable and stable store of value. Factors contributing to a currency's ''hard'' status might include the stability and ...
. In 1990, Orbis managed 53 hotels, and in 1991, the enterprise was changed into the so-called sole-shareholder company of the State Treasury. In July 1993, Orbis was divided into two companies, Orbis Travel and Orbis Transport, and on November 15, 1997, Orbis SA shares appeared at
Warsaw Stock Exchange The Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), pl, Giełda Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie, is a stock exchange in Warsaw, Poland. It has a market capitalization of PLN 1.05 trillion (EUR 232 billion; as of December 23, 2020). The WSE is a member of the ...
. By 1999, shares of State Treasury fell below the level of 50%. In August 2000, French hotel group
Accor Accor S.A. is a French multinational hospitality company that owns, manages and franchises hotels, resorts and vacation properties. It is the largest hospitality company in Europe, and the sixth largest hospitality company worldwide. Accor ope ...
bought a 20% stake in Orbis. In 2008, they increased their stake to over 50%. In 2019, by which point Accor owned an 85.5% stake in Orbis, the hotel management and services company Accor sold its entire interest in the company to its sister company, AccorInvest, which controls the company's real estate assets. Together with Orbis Transport and Hekon-Hotele Ekonomiczne, Orbis Group makes up the largest tourist and hotel agency of both Poland and East-Central Europe. It operates 139 hotels with more than 22,200 rooms. Hotels of Orbis Group are operated under such names as Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Mercure and 3 types of Ibis. In Poland, Orbis Group operates 3 Sofitel hotels, 2 MGallery hotels, 13 Novotel hotels, 22 Mercure hotels, 37 Ibis hotels (3 types).


See also

*
Tourism in Poland Poland is a part of the global tourism market with constantly increasing number of visitors. Tourism in Poland contributes to the country's overall economy. The most popular cities are Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznań, Szczecin, ...


References


External links


Webpage of Orbis
{{Authority control Tourism in Poland Hospitality companies of Poland Organizations established in 1920 Tourism in Lviv Companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange History of Lviv Polish brands Tourism agencies