€2,000 and free Christening parties on offer from hotel if you conceive while staying there

A hotel chain owner in Poland has come up with a solution to the country's declining birth rate.

Poland's birth rate is among the lowest in Europe and it continues to decline. 

Poland’s fertility rate of 1.2 children per woman in 2023 is among the weakest in the EU, with only Malta, Spain and Lithuania behind it.

"The issue is real. Poland has been losing population for seven years in a row,"  Raphael Minder, the Financial Times’ Central Europe Correspondent, told Newstalk's Moncrieff.

To combat this, the 73-year-old owner of the hotel chain 'Arche' says he will offer free Christening parties to couples who can prove they conceived their baby while staying at one of the hotels. 

There are 23 hotels across Poland and all parents have to do to get the party is show the hotel a bill from their stay that happened roughly nine months before their baby was born. 

The party does not have to be a Christening - it can be a non-religious party either with a maximum limit of 10 people.

The 'Arche' owner has also said he will pay any of his staff members the equivalent of roughly €2,000 per child if they have children.