Prague is not just a bridge and a castle. The city wants to get tourists out of the crowded center
Prague will continue its campaign to support tourism, which this year has been hit by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic and is experiencing billions in losses. It also has a new tourism concept, which is called Interests of Prague in the first place.
“This material (concept) was created for several months, and at the beginning it was necessary to confront overtourism, which has troubled us for years. Now the streets are empty, but this state is not final and I hope that tourists will return and tourism will resume. And we want to be ready for that time,” said Prague councilor Hana Třeštíková (Praha Sobě).
The concept should take into account what the city needs and how to deal with tourism. Her password is the name mentioned. “We want to change the way of looking at the form of tourism, when more does not mean better. We emphasize the sustainable development of the city, respect for the cultural heritage and the life of the city’s inhabitants,” said Třeštíková.
According to board member Jana Adamcová, the municipal company Prague City Tourism has now prepared and processed 58 projects that are intended to help improve the quality of tourism. The company wants to get money from European funds to create an application that allows it to manage the flow of tourists and send them information. “It would allow us to dynamically manage tourism, which we don’t have now,” she said.
New routes are being prepared that would take tourists away from the crowded center. “We don’t want them to perceive Prague only as the Castle, the Charles Bridge and the Astronomical Clock,” said Třeštíková. A new Prague Visitor Pass tourist card will be created, which will offer benefits, discounts and other advantages.
With entrepreneurs and their organizations Prague City Tourism application about the creation of basic sustainable tourism, which the entrepreneurs tried to obtain. “It would be a mark that entrepreneurs in the capital would strive for. This mark belongs to us in promoting the city to prioritize sustainable business. This could, for example, support the city’s sustainable operations,” said Adamcová.
The city management will continue the campaign In Prague as at home, which attracted almost 70,000 tourists to the city over the summer. However, it is currently awaiting the further development of the coronavirus pandemic. “The big question will be Christmas and the related markets and other events that attract. We will monitor how the situation develops and respond accordingly. If we can do markets and others, it will be reflected in the form of a campaign,” said Třeštíková. This spring, the city gave 121 million crowns to support tourism.
The facts
Prague accounts for more than half of the Czech GDP from tourism
Last year, 8.03 million tourists came to Prague. They spent 18.46 million nights here and the average length of stay is 2.29 nights. Prague generates 60.3 percent of the total GDP of the Czech Republic in the field of tourism.
In the interest of tourists at the tip of Europe
Prague is one of the most developed and most visited urban tourist destinations in Europe and the world. In 2018, it ranked seventh out of 126 European cities in the number of overnight visitors. In terms of the number of arrivals, Prague even took 6th place in Europe and 20th in the world in the same year. In the vote of the travelers themselves, it finished in 7th place according to the Tripadvisor platform. International arrivals have grown by an average of 6% over the past ten years, which is higher than the European and global average. In 2018 and 2019, however, the growth rate of international arrivals to Prague slowed significantly.
Vacationers spend six billion euros per season
Total revenues from inbound tourism in the Czech Republic in 2016 amounted to 5.7 billion euros, but the share of revenues in the number of arrivals is below the EU average. Prague is dependent on foreign demand – foreign tourism spent 5.9 billion euros here in 2016, which is 88% of the total number of tourists.
18.5 million Prague nights
In 2019, more than 8 million tourists came to Prague and spent almost 18.5 million nights here. However, the average number of overnight stays is only 2.29 nights. While the number of visitors to Prague has been increasing for a long time, the average length of their stay is getting shorter: in 1996, the average length of stay in mass accommodation facilities was 3.7 days, by 2019 it had shortened by more than 1.4 days. However, Prague is not published, and a quite common global trend in recent years is the shortening of stays at the expense of stays in more destinations, not only in urban tourism. In reality, not only are many more people traveling, but they are traveling to more places and more often (several times a year).
The highest tourism GDP in Europe
Prague generates more than 60% of the GDP produced in tourism in the Czech Republic. This represents the highest share of the monitored European cities and indicates the strongly dominant position of tourism in Prague within the state. In Prague, tourism accounts for 5% of the city’s GDP. Also, with an 8% share of tourism in total employment, Prague is at the top of the European ranking – second only to Amsterdam. Employment is growing more slowly than GDP growth in Prague’s tourism industry, by 2026 it expects an increase of only 0.9% (larger than, for example, in Barcelona, but smaller than in other cities).
Extreme congestion in Prague
In terms of tourism density, Prague fundamentally exceeds other European cities with 257 arrivals per hectare. At the same time, tourism in Prague is concentrated on a significantly smaller area than, for example, in Vienna, London, Berlin or Rome, and its burden of tourism is actually much higher.