Destination familiarity has been analyzed for many years as an important factor influencing the perceived attractiveness of a destination and its image. However, previous research has concentrated on this relation considering familiarity with a destination as a whole, while the issue of familiarity with particular elements of a destination has not been explored. The current research aimed to detect if and how familiarity with three selected elements of a destination, namely, tangible tourism attractions, events, and traditional cuisine and dishes, impacts the perceived attractiveness of a city destination. The research was conducted using the following four Polish cities as examples: Gdańsk, Katowice, Łódź, and Wrocław. The research questionnaire was distributed among the citizens of another Polish city—Krakow. Over 200 responses were received. The results show that familiarity with tangible attraction was correlated with high perceived attractiveness of a destination, while the other two factors did not impact the level of perceived attractiveness. The results were achieved on the basis of the indication of several scientific and practical conclusions.

Cultural heritage and its various elements are an important factor that supports the development of tourism in destinations. One of the key factors of a successful destination is its positive image that allows it to effectively attract visitors. This paper investigates the impact of selected elements of material cultural heritage on the image of four Polish metropolitan destinations. The results indicate thathistorical and cultural heritage plays a more significantrole in creating an attractive image of a city than the city’s contemporary and post-industrial facilities. Cities perceived as historical areconsideredas much more attractive to spend free time in than cities predominantly associated with industrial functions. Moreover, the presented research results confirm a relationship between the familiarity of a destination and its positive image. These features have also been observed in previous studies.

The study includes the description of development conditions for the satellite navigation programme Galileo. Its also includes some aspects of the Galileo programme accomplishment, especially its influence on the integration process in Europe and tightening the international connections. The programme has been implemented since the 1990s and its aim is to ensure the independence of the EU countries in such sectors of their economy which are based on the precise information related to location and time. Galileo has also its overregional dimension, which is the result of satellite constellation and its global reach. It is the biggest industrial project conducted within the integrated European structures. What is more, the distinction of Galileo among other European satellite programmes has its roots in its crucial strategic significance rather than in technology or investment costs. So far, the cosmologic institutions have not been formally connected with the integrated European structures, and less importance has been attached to political aspects of their projects. The transformation of the Galileo programme is proceeding in the condition of potential incomes risk from the system work. The fiasco of public and private partnership establishments was the result of differences in estimating the risk of trade incomes and market development. In 2013 Galileo will be in its full operation process and first GPS III satellites will work, what is more, the high precision of this American system and other integrated GNSS systems will establish competition in terms of commercial and amateur aplications. Widening the cooperation between the EU countries and the USA implies many positive effects, such as creating the idea of a multi-system satellite scheme, the compatibility of Galileo and GPS receivers and, what follows, the increase of navigation precision and reduction of overall costs borne by the system owners.