The Higher Hotel School in Kraków and its contribution to the education of hospitality sector employees in interwar Poland

Abstract

This article discusses the idea of the establishment and activities of the Higher Hotel Management School in Kraków, in the period 1932-1939. At the time, this educational institution was the only one in the country training future employees of the hotel industry. In turn, interwar Kraków was an important point on the map of the development of Polish tourism. My study is based on source materials found in the collection of the National Archives in Kraków (ANK). The main point of reference is the Presidium Files of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Kraków (IPHKr), dating from 1862-1939. Among the materials used are: the reports of the meetings of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Hotel School Files and the guidelines for the authors of hotel high school programs (1938-1939). In addition, the reports and trade journals published in print are referenced, such as: Restaurator and Hotelarz Polski. Owing to a lack of studies directly related to the topic in question, the study includes a publication by Tomasz Kargol, Izba Przemysłowo-Handlowa w Krakowie w latach 1850-1939 (2003), in which the author devoted one chapter to the issue of the interwar period. Chapter on interwar tourism education in the capital of Lesser Poland.