WARSAW (AFP)– With football fans set to provide a hefty boost to tourism into Poland for the Euro 2012 championships, organisers are scrambling to make sure the four cities hosting games will be able to find accommodation for them all.
The pace will certainly pick up from Tuesday with the official launch of Euro 2012 ticket sales.
Hotels, motels, university student residences and even campsites are being drafted-in for those making an extended stay during the three-week-long football extravaganza starting June 8, that Poland is co-hosting with neighbour Ukraine.
UEFA officials and tournament sponsors - anyone considered part of"the UEFA family" of European football's governing body - can be sure to sleep soundly as organisers have already booked out swish hotels.
But regular fans attempting to book rooms already risk hearing the dreaded"No Vacancy". For fans who are short on luck with hotel bookings, championship organisers are considering pitching giant camp sites.
Organisers estimate 100,000 beds will be needed in the capital Warsaw and claim there are an estimated 101,000 available.
But Warsaw tourism authorities are less optimistic.
"There are around 33,000 beds, with about two-thirds of them in hotels," Barbara Tekieli, the director of Warsaw's tourism office told AFP.
Euro 2012 accommodation coordinator Rafal Rosiejak explains that UEFA's calculations are based on"a geographic area comprising a region within two hours travel surrounding Warsaw as well as university dormitory rooms."
Rosiejak is urging universities to rent dorm rooms for 40-50 euros (55-69 dollars) per night, but availability is also at issue as students would normally still be in residence.
Under pressure from the sports ministry, Poland's education ministry is proposing that students start their summer vacation several weeks early in 2012 in order to free up dorm rooms for football fans.
Barbara Kudrycka, Poland's minister for higher education, has sent a carefully worded request to university rectors.
"The minister cannot oblige universities, but we hope to co-operate on a good understanding. There are 100,000 beds in university residences located in the (four) host cities. We hope to have at least 50,000 for fans," Bartosz Loba, an education ministry spokesperson, told AFP.
Some universities, among them one in the south-western Polish city of Wroclaw near the German border, have declared their willingness to cut courses short in 2012.
Professors at the polytechnic institute in the Baltic port city of Gdansk are proposing that the three weeks of courses that would be cut due to the early vacation be squeezed into timetables earlier in the year.
But not all universities are proving as flexible or enthusiastic.
"Timetables and budgets for 2011/2012 have already been finalised and we're not planning to make any changes," says Anna Korzekwa, spokesperson for Warsaw University which has about 3,000 dorms at its disposal.
"Between 30 to 40 percent of students stay in dorms through the summer and others use them while taking various courses. It would be very difficult to free up our infrastructure. Moreover, we have no guarantee that the costs of possible damage would be covered," Korzekwa told AFP.
Talks are underway in the western Polish city of Poznan, which is just a three-hour train ride from the German capital Berlin. Rafal Rosiejak is optimistic about the city, adding that in some places"capacity is greater than need."
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