A small earthquake broke out in Prague after the last elections. Representatives of the new parties came to power. How did they approach tourism?

We are pleased to understand the City Hall, which is acquainted with tourism issues. the new representatives have reasonable views yet. For example, the municipality has commissioned the development of a tourism strategy for almost a decade. When she accepts it, other components will comment on it. For us, it is important that this strategy not only marketing, but also issues around management. For example, our organization has no influence on tourism management in Prague. So, as a result, a lot of materials or leaflets, articles, statements, etc. are published about Prague, but no one controls or coordinates these procedures.

Perhaps the councilors for the transport department, the transport company, the IPR, and others decide on tourism. We will have our own management immediately, we can solve many issues that have not been solved yet. For example, such a banality as a tourist tram. The transport company received a request for its operation from the city. Do you know anything about her? And it’s been the third year. It is tram number 23 and goes around the most visited Prague sights and tourist destinations. It differs from the others, perhaps only that it has a Prague Castle sign in front of the driver. There is no wifi, no promotional material about Prague, no reports in at least two languages, no one will tell you where to perform at the National Theater, where the Dancing House is, despite the invitation to take a walk along the waterfront and the like.

We just want to show more than just the Castle. If we took this initiative, I think we can organize it better and most importantly differently. At the moment, we are just a tool that has no authority as an authority. For example, we do not comment on whether and where a concert hall will be built. When discussions about Kaplický Blob took place in Prague, I was against the project. Not because of the building itself, but because of the location in Letná. Such a construction does not matter there. If the organizers chose Bubeneč or another more suitable space, it made sense to me. I do not know how to forget about this project that there is a lack of missing infrastructure in Letná, an important institution. And they probably missed the exit from the Blanka tunnel. That wouldn’t be there for the movement at all. But there are other centers in Prague where the so-called Blob could work without problems, and on the contrary, it would improve the surrounding space. The organizers omitted, which would be an irreparable damage, because we lost another center in another part of Prague, which could partially divert the influx of tourists from Old Town Square, Lesser Town and Hradcany. For example, Barcelona in Catalonia is said to be so-called overcultured. However, because it has a lot of historical and modern centers, it is far from significant. In addition, the city became a tourist attraction only after the Olympic Games, when they built a modern infrastructure. Prague is unlucky.

In the past, tourist slogans, such as the Czech Baroque or the Czech Republic, the land of stories, took turns and publicized.

We found out it didn’t work. We are glad that CzechTourism is coming up with topics that have not worked for a long time. Our anniversaries do not work at the tourist markets of the surrounding states either. One hundred years of founding the republic is a wonderful affair for us, but of course Austria does not take it that way and other neighbors do not care. Slovakia also approached this topic very cautiously.

CzechTourism offered our anniversary in Japan, for example. The Japanese thought slightly and nodded politely. Unlike our state, they have a millennial tradition. For them, a hundred years means nothing. Baroque was something like that.

In order to have a blockbuster in tourism, it would have to be some big social, sports or cultural event of world importance. Maybe this will be the celebrations of the end of World War II. world war, but I do not know. There are other options. For example, Prague could have a certain denominator, such as excellent world-class beer. But we do not dare to do that again. Maybe we’re too scared. For example, what to imagine when you say Scotland? Leaving aside the local nature, it’s local whiskey. Nature is also nice and beer in the Czech Republic, for foreigners more in Prague, as many experts agree, is one of the best in the world. We decided to promote beer, but not as an alcoholic beverage, but as a beer gastronomic culture. Maybe it would like to tighten it up a bit.

We also need to think about our habits, which are detrimental to tourism. For example, visitors from southern countries or France and Spain are used to dinner around ten to eleven o’clock in the evening. For example, they do not eat before visiting a theater like us. And after the performance, the kitchens of restaurants in Prague have long since closed. Guests may find themselves somewhere in the hotel.

How does our capital treat backpackers? How do you view low-cost tourism?

That’s really hard. On the one hand, we certainly do not support alcohol trips, when gentlemen from England or Scandinavia arrive, drink that night, do not stay and leave the next day.

On the other hand, if it is a classic backpacker who stays with the help of Airbnb and is here for three days, we welcome that. We even consider him a creditworthy clientele. It doesn’t have much money, but it lasts three nights. On average, the average tourist stays in our capital for about two nights. Although the backpacker does not spend so much, it often happens that he subsequently comes to Prague several times. And we definitely want a client who comes repeatedly, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a classic or a backpacker. In addition, it usually behaves like a low cost. He doesn’t get drunk and there’s no problem with it. The phenomenon of accommodation within the Airbnb also has positives, because the tourist stays in it longer. Quite often three or four nights. It often does not stay in hotels. In addition, young people are looking for experiences outside the center. That is why we support such events as band concerts, most recently Guns N ‘Roses, which attract a lot of fans from all over the world and at the same time Czech tourists come and sleep in Prague. After the concert, there are full clubs around the arena, so such an event is worthwhile for the city.

We have calculated that about 30% of visitors return to Prague. And the marketing costs for tourists who return are many times lower than for those who do not return. This is best seen on lauded Asian tourists, who usually do not return.

How do city districts participate in tourism?

City districts do not cooperate much with tourism, logically except for Prague 1. An example is the city districts, which are adjacent to each other. When we were preparing the publication Prague: district, so some district representatives were not interested in listing the territory of another district. The neighbors Vršovice (Prague 10) and Vinohrady (Prague 2) were a negative example. A controversial problem is the Central Station, which is located in the three city districts. Given that this station is one of the main gates to the capital, and we are dealing with the question of who we should be talking to, it is difficult. It just doesn’t work that way. Tourism does not ask which district it is. The tourist does not care whether it is Prague 20 or Prague 7, as well as whether Karlín is adjacent to Prague 1, as well as whether Prague 6 has Prague Castle as its neighbor. No visitor cares. Unfortunately, the parking lot for buses that drop off tourists to the Hradčany viewpoint is in Prague 6. And you wouldn’t believe what the problem is.

Asian travel agencies say that visitors from Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand and other countries often fly to Prague for popular movies and series.

Prague therefore founded Prague Film Fund. This film fund supports titles that our crews shoot and thus promote Prague. According to the promised distribution, they receive support. Of course, the wider the distribution, the more generous we are. For example, the film Charlatan was recently completed in a Czech-Ireland-Polish-Slovak co-production to be screened at Berlinae. We will certainly help financially. He also shoots a detective story for German television, where Prague plays Prague. We are quite unhappy when the filmmakers place the Rudolfinum in France, for example.

On the contrary, we support those who show that the story is taking place in Prague. For example, during detective stories, the producers asked us if we had any idea of ​​a suitable location. In one series, we even have the roof of the Agricultural Museum. In Bollywood films, we again show the gardens of Prague Castle, which will later attract filmmakers and tourists. People from Asia are very passionate about romantic looks. Fortunately, we have a lot of them. Films quite often attract very creditworthy clients. Thanks to the film, a number of wedding trips from China, South Korea and Japan, for example, took place in our city.

Does Prague use the potential of the global navigation game geocaching? This year, a giga event will take place in Prague, which was supposed to be the largest gathering of geocachers in Europe.

We are not working with that at all yet. However, it is not so far for us, because we had a geocache right in the information center at the Old Town Hall. There, we agreed with the operator that rather than putting it somewhere in the area where the company would appreciate the supporters, it would raise unpleasant questions, so we would rather take the chest to the town hall. We were amazed at how positive the reactions to our initiative were on social media. We even helped replenish the chest operator and the cooperation was perfect.