The president of Poland’s national tourist office has been fired after removing a trip to Auschwitz from the itinerary of a group of foreign journalists.

Marek Olszewski was sacked after he told the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper that Auschwitz did not promote Poland as an “attractive tourist destination”.

In an article published on Wednesday he is quoted as saying: “As the head of the Polish Tourist Organization, who loves his country, I want to show its best side, through our monuments, culture, hospitality, wonderful music.

“Auschwitz is not a tourist product but a place of martyrology, reverie and reflection, and we are promoting Poland as an attractive tourist destination.

“I do not need to expose places and events connected with the history of other nations.”

He added: “It was Poles, not the Jewish elites, that were completely plowed and liquidated during the war. Let us remember that the whole Jewish culture in practice has survived.”

Polish minister of tourism Witold Bańka said Mr Olszewski’s remarks were “scandalous” and he would be fired straight away.

Mr Banka said he was unaware that the trip to Auschwitz had been removed until the story was published.

Mr Olszewski, who is said to be a member of the right-wing populist Law and Justice party, also removed a trip to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

He ran for mayor twice in the town of Kamien Pomorski.