Emergency phone service for foreign tourists
On May 30th, an agreement on the operating arrangements of the campaign “Tourism emergency line” was signed by Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism Katarzyna Sobierajska, Deputy Commander in Chief of the Police Waldemar Jarczewski, Head of the Office for Foreigners Rafał Rogala and Chairman of the Polish Tourism Organization Rafał Szmytke.
The “Tourism Emergency Line” campaign begins on June 1st. Until September 30th, phone operators will provide information to tourists in English, German and Russian, every day between 10.00 a.m. and 10.00 p.m. The “Tourism Emergency Line” will not only help tourists in emergencies, but will also provide support in matters related e.g. to health, loss of documents and to obtaining tourism information.
The Emergency Line will not replace the phone numbers of the relevant emergency services (Police, Fire Service, Emergency Medical Services). Operators will work in close liaison with the Duty Officer of the National Police Headquarters. In typical situations the consultants will provide the telephone numbers of the relevant services: Police, Medical Emergency, Fire Service, road assistance and tourist information services.
Tourists may use the free of charge hotline 0 800 200 300 for landline phones, and the number +48 608 599 999, charged according to the relevant mobile phone tariffs.
The initiative is supported by an information campaign targeting tourists; 120 thousand leaflets with emergency phone numbers will be printed every year in three language versions. They will be distributed abroad by selected Polish embassies and Polish Tourism Information Centres; they will also be handed out at border crossings, airports and in tourism information centres. Police stations across the country will also be taking part in the campaign.