37 Pol. J. Sport Tourism 2022, 29(4), 37-45 DOI: 10.2478/pjst-2022-0025 Introduction Just before the outbreak of the pandemic, world tourism achieved impressive results in record-breaking 2019: 1.46 billion international tourist arrivals and $1.481 trillion international tourist receipts [1]. The demand for package holidays constitutes an important part of the tourist market, i.e., special sets (pack- ages) of at least two types of tourist services comprehensively satisfying complementary needs of tourists (from accommoda- tion, through transfer, to providing a guide), organized by tour operators and covered by a single flat price. Their share in in- ternational tourist receipts comes to almost 1/3 [2] and has not changed significantly in recent years. Preferences shown by tourists regarding package holidays result from their advantages over individually purchased servic- es. These include higher convenience and a lower risk involved in the purchase, lower total cost of the services covered by the package (including many benefits important for tourists in the package), the sense of security during a tourist event (certainty and predictability), as well as easier social interaction and fast- er access to both substantive and practical information about the destination visited [3] Middleton et al. [4] supplement the above-mentioned benefits with a guarantee of the quality of services provided by the organizer/seller of the package holiday and, in the event of failure, the right to obtain compensation and no personal sense of failure. Tourists favor this way of or- ganizing tourist events in the case of distant trips abroad asso- ciated with staying in an unknown, culturally and linguistically different and frequently unpredictable environment [5]. The demographic, social, behavioral and economic characteristics of package holiday buyers are also important. The tendency to use this type of offer depends on age, gender, family status, ed- ucation, income level, as well as the traveler’s experience and nationality [3, 6]. The 2020 pandemic caused by the spreading COVID-19 virus has left its mark on the entire global economy. In particu- lar, it took its toll on businesses dealing with providing services directly to customers, including travel companies. In 2020 and 2021, compared to 2019, international tourist traffic declined by more than 2/3 [7], which was caused by the need to abandon foreign travel primarily due to the closing of state borders, legal restrictions, as well as tourists’ concerns and caution. A simi- lar decline in sales volume referred to package holidays (57% according to [6]). The changes on the global package holiday market concerned not only the demand size, but also its structure and purchase behaviors presented by tourists. For example, in relation to the structure of demand for package holidays shown by Poles, the comparison between 2020 (the first year of the pandemic) and previous years revealed a higher share of the do- mestic offer in the total sales of package holidays. In 2021, when the situation was more familiar, activities aimed at preventing the disease from spreading were sustained, and the number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 was systematically increas- ing, along with lifting lockdowns by destination countries, Poles returned to long-distance international traveling. However, they chose destinations which opened to tourists (i.e., no tests THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC THREAT ON PURCHASE DECISIONS OF TRAVEL AGENCY CUSTOMERS IN POLAND ANDRZEJ DUDEK 1 , DARIA ELŻBIETA JAREMEN 2 , IZABELA MICHALSKA-DUDEK 2 , MAREK WALESIAK 1 Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, 1 Faculty of Economics and Finance, Department of Econometrics and Computer Science, 2 Faculty of Management, Department of Marketing and Tourism Management Mailing address: Izabela Michalska-Dudek, Department of Marketing and Tourism Management, Faculty of Management, Wrocław University of Economics and Business, 3 Nowowiejska Street, 58-500 Jelenia Góra; tel.: +48 75 7538235; e-mail: izabela.michalska-dudek@ue.wroc.pl Abstract Introduction. The dynamic increase in world tourism demand was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The package hol- idays market is one of the tourism branches affected by the crisis the most. The study aimed at identifying the direction of changes in purchase behaviors regarding package holidays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods. The research on tourists purchasing package holidays during the COVID-19 pandemic was quantitative and covered a nationwide online panel of respondents characterized by a representative distribution for the general population of Poles (n = 1502). At the data analysis stage, logit models of buyers’ behaviors were used. In the estimation process, GLM in R (R Core Team 2022) was applied. Results. The situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected how tourists traveled. The conducted analysis made it possible to distinguish four segments of buyers during the pandemic and to identify factors determining the choice of one of the purchase patterns. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, a significant increase in the number of tourists who needed personal contact with sellers at brick-and-mortar travel offices was observed. Conclusions. The study presented a meaningful contribution to understanding purchase behaviors of tourists who prefer package holidays. It is one of the few studies that compared behavior patterns of holiday package buyers in the period before and during the pandemic. The knowl- edge of changes in package holiday purchase behaviors is essential for travel agencies to design effective marketing strategies. Key words: travel agent, package holiday, tourist decision making, COVID-19, ROPO behavior Original research papers