The aim of the article is to indicate the role and importance of the gmina as a special institution of the Polish tourism system in shaping the local tourism policy of the area. The article presents the concept and objectives of tourism policy, and describes the various entities of tourism policy in Poland and their tasks. Against this background, the article captures the gmina's tasks in the sphere of tourism together with the instruments of tourism policy that are at its disposal. The article uses a descriptive and qualitative analysis method that allowed to identify the role of the gmina in the tourism system in Poland. The analysis includes literature in the field of economic sciences, based additionally on legal acts related to the discussed issue. As an institution of the tourism system, the gmina has the task of satisfying the needs of the local community and stimulating local development, thanks to which it plays an important role in shaping the local tourism policy. The gmina has a wide range of activities on the local tourist economy. It should be emphasized that this is not an individual task of the gmina, although there is no doubt that it has a wide range of opportunities to influence this sphere of social and economic life. Tourism policy should be undertaken and implemented in cooperation with private sector entities conducting tourist activity, but also entities from outside the tourism industry (so-called paratourism entities) and their organizations and associations. Tourism policy should also be implemented together with other local government units, the area of which is covered by an initiative in the field of tourism development, including also higher-level entities (such as poviats and voivodships), as well as with local and regional tourist organizations and other non-governmental organizations.

The paper discusses the issue of the regional tourism brand, which is a significant differentiator of the area in the market and gives the opportunity to include tourism in the model of socio-economic development of the region. The analysis of regional branded tourist products includes mountain rural areas of Poland. These areas are an example of a region with unfavourable farming conditions, which makes the competitive position of these areas in a much worse position than other rural areas in the country. Due to the difficulties in the sphere of social and economic life occurring in mountain rural areas, they require other alternative development incentives. Tourism can be one of these, but to make the development through tourism effective, attention must be focused on building a strong regional brand, which is the competitive strength of the area. Mountain rural areas have their own specific potential, which allows them to build regional branded tourist products easily distinctive from lowland rural areas. The aim of the paper is to indicate the importance of the region's tourism brand on the example of mountain rural areas of Poland, including its constituent elements. The paper uses a descriptive and qualitative analysis method that allowed to identify problems of mountain rural areas development and the role of tourism and in particular the tourism brand in the development of such areas. The analysis includes literature in the field of economic sciences, including economies of regions, economies of tourism, and territorial marketing. The paper covers the issues of development of mountain rural areas with an indication of their main socio-economic development problems. Then, against the background of the concept of the region in economic terms, mountain rural areas have been presented as a tourist region where tourism can be an important factor of development. The text also covers selected issues related to the creation of a regional tourism brand, and characterizes the regional tourism brand of mountain rural areas, together with their constituent elements.

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SUMMARYThe subject of the paper is the financing of sport, and broadly speaking: physical culture in Poland. This problem is a subject of interest in the context of the role played in its development by the local government units: gminas (NUTS level-5), poviats (NUTS level-4), and voivodships (NUTS level-2). The aim of the study is to assess the relationship between the amount of expenditure incurred from the budgets of local government units at all levels and the number of athletes in sports clubs in the area. This objective also includes the knowledge of spatial differentiation of both categories of research, and therefore the amount of expenditure of local government budgets on physical culture (per capita) and the number of athletes in sports clubs (per 1000 inhabitants). The study covers the entire Poland including territorial-administrative division of gminas, poviats and voivodships. The analysis is based on data from the years 2000 to 2013. The research allowed to classify voivodships in terms of the number of athletes in sports clubs per 1000 inhabitants and spending on development of physical culture (including sport). It enabled the presentation of the spatial structure of the analyzed categories (indicators). For the spatial classification the 3-Means Method has been used.