A recipe for attracting tourists to the Czech Republic. The basis is an irresistible triathlon
He knows first-hand how income from tourism has fallen. Among other things, because he co-owns a sports bar on Prague’s Náplavka with kayaker Vavřinec Hradílek and two other entrepreneurs. Jan Herget, director of the Czech Tourism agency, answered in the SZ Byznys studio.
How much has your business hurt the loss of tourists?
Both we and the whole Náplavka are such a litmus test, but also a demonstration of how to fight the covid. Overall, we are worse off than before the covid, but the decline is not as brutal as a restaurant or hotel in Prague 1. And the reason: Náplavka and we are very focused on home, on Prague, we are a sports ground. In winter we have a sauna, during summer a beach volleyball court, paddleboards, kayaks. And this is not a common activity that tourists do in Prague. Locals come to us.
Tourism, which was built on the locals, in the Czechs, is absolutely perfect over the holidays. Those who stand on foreign guests, especially from America or simply those who flew for us, suffered.
But what we lack – and this is missing throughout the Czech Republic – is congress tourism. Not that we did congresses, but we had a lot of corporate events and they disappeared.
Totally or are they coming back?
Thank God they’re coming back. But by May, all tourism had been closed and companies were generally afraid. The more transnational they are, the stricter the rules are for holding such events.
The trend in statistics is obvious – domestic tourists still predominate over foreign ones, what are the latest figures and how has it changed compared to the year before the covid?
Before the covid, in 2019, 21 million tourists stayed in collective accommodation establishments. If we include Airbnb or those who arrived in one day, we are somewhere around 30, maybe 35 million. We are currently in the third.
I believe that we will get to some reasonable numbers, especially if autumn – as it is said out loud – is not closed.
I firmly believe that the Russians will start flying from September, I know that the air frequency is increasing. And I firmly believe that the Ministry of Health will allow Sputnik V from Russia as well. Currently, Hungarians with Sputnik can travel here, for example (the interview took place at the beginning of September), but the Russians are not allowed yet.
And I also firmly believe that the issuance of tourist visas will be resumed. So that one of us, the main and most important target groups for us – Russian clients – will be able to reach us as tourists from September and October.
But if we succeed, if we manage to fly the air connection with France, with Italy, with Spain, which is at a percentage compared to the pre-ancestral period, we are working on it now, but I cannot promise or guarantee it.
Which foreigners miss here the most? And does it differ somehow in Prague and in the regions?
Everyone is missing. Prague, which accounts for 66 percent of the turnover of the entire tourism industry, is mainly lacking in Western European, Asian and American tourists, who do not fly yet.
As for the regions, there is also a decline in Germany and Poland. We also campaigned for the surrounding countries so that we could come to us by train or car, precisely because it was still clear during the summer that Prague Airport would not renew all years.
The post-time period is such that we don’t really want to get on a plane, especially when we have children. The risk of being left with a voucher is so huge that we all prefer last-minute planning and ideally ground transportation.
That is, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, but we have also added Hungary, because even from here people can reach us by car. The post-time period is such that we don’t really want to get on a plane, especially when we have children. The risk of being left with a voucher is so huge that we all prefer last-minute planning and ideally ground transportation.
In the autumn, we intend to focus our marketing on the countries from which people fly to us. In order to help Prague and big cities survive the winter season, which is traditionally in complex cities.
Did you mention any campaign – did you attract Austrians for hiking, Germans and Russians to the spa, what else are you planning, for example for those flying tourists?
I’ll correct you yet – we didn’t attract Russians to the spa, but we did B2B seminars there so that we wouldn’t disappear from the market. So, in particular, we “kept the doctors” and, for example, doctors “kept them in tension” and we are new to them. Because Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně are now on the UNESCO list.
Since the autumn, we have been preparing a strong and successful campaign with Prague Airport and airlines to open routes and attract people, especially to Prague, where tourists are most lacking. Prague then serves as a gateway to the regions.
At the end of the year, we are also preparing a teaser campaign for tradition. We will start with Christmas markets, where we are among the world’s best. Christmas markets in our country regularly win various ranks on CNN or the New York Times as the best or most romantic markets.
Not only in Prague, but also in Olomouc, precisely in general – if the Czech Republic has something competitive apart from Prague and the spa, then it is the Christmas markets.
In which other areas can we compete abroad?
We classify it into four product lines. The first is cultural tourism, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Thanks to the Jizera Mountains beech forests and spas, we already have 23 UNESCO monuments, not counting the biosphere area, which is under UNESCO, but does not have the stamp. I would say that we are the country with the largest UNESCO monuments per square kilometer.
This is similar to gas pumps.
Or with tourist signs. Then there are a number of spas, which are already referred to as UNESCO, or generally by various visits of kings and rulers in the past were famous around the world. We are also a superpower in congresses, Prague is one of the ten largest congress destinations. We just suffered a lot there right now. Congresses bring, firstly, a relatively creditworthy clientele, and secondly, they take place in the seasons when the most expensive hotels live. A large number of other services are packed for this.
We are also competitive in the fourth product line, which is active tourism: mountains, bicycles. We cannot compete with the Alps for altitude, on the other hand, how many people want to climb four thousand meters above sea level and hang somewhere on a rope.
Apart from the sea and the high mountains, I dare say that we have absolutely everything, and pre-Jewish statistics suggested it. We were among the top destinations not only in Europe but also worldwide.
What are your expectations regarding congress tourism in the autumn?
It will depend a lot on how the autumn lasts. It is not just about prohibitions, but also about our responsible behavior. If, if we have any suspicions of infection, we will stay at home or go out. I firmly hope that we remain open, because it is very important for employment. And I hope that the congresses will gradually start.
Dare to hold a congress for four thousand people today is a small suicide, so the start-up will be slow. Hybrid actions will prevail: fewer people will meet and it will be spread all over the world. The Czech Republic is also very competitive in this, virtual studios are being created like mushrooms after the rain.
I believe that, despite the hybrid events, we will return to standard large, for example medical or scientific congresses in two or three years, which were very advantageous for Prague and the entire country.
The CzechTourism agency presented a new strategy for the year 2021 to 2025. First of all: instead of carpet campaigns, you want to target tourists more narrowly. Can you concretize it?
I need to go a lot into digital, whether they are on a social network or the internet. We can very well target the target group. The requirements for these campaigns come a lot from entrepreneurs.
Let me give you a beautiful example: Ski resorts do not want a campaign before the season, but after the spring break. That’s when the Czechs stop believing that they can go to the mountains. When it hits on March 14, the Czechs stop skiing and take out their bikes. At the same time, there is still a lot of snow in the mountains, prices are lower, the areas are free. The task for us is to entice skiers to stay until Easter.
Another idea that intrigued me: that CzechTourism must act as a start-up.
That’s a bit of an exaggeration, of course.
And isn’t it a shame to think of it as an exaggeration?
The laws that bind us are so strict and inflexible, if we acted as a start-up, then we do some things from day to day. And that is not possible. But covid time has shown what is needed. We are also moving to digital and our conferences.
We also need to speed up. According to the Public Procurement Act, you must compete in a tender for anything you buy over CZK 3.5 million. And it takes at least two months. If you take all the deadlines for appeal, etc., it actually takes three months. So imagine that at the time of the covid, when the borders open back and forth in 14 days, it takes you up to three months to win one campaign. They didn’t do anything at all.
That is why we have introduced the so-called dynamic purchasing system, which is also a limit tender, but these are some repeat purchases, for example for those campaigns. The deadline is reduced to ten days. It’s still a lot, but it’s real time now that we can be a little more flexible and responsive to what’s happening in the world. Because he brutally accelerated after the covid and changed consumer behavior.
We used to be able to buy autumn tickets for a good price in the spring. Today, no one dares to wait and is waiting for the last minute. This must be matched by our campaigns, which must respond to the latest trends.
Why haven’t you used dynamic shopping before?
It’s new and nobody knew it. Until now, it was used to buy toilet paper, etc. We said to ourselves that even those campaigns, shooting spots, photography is a repetitive activity and that it can be used very well. It was not in the previous law and we had to learn to work with it.
You can watch the whole interview in the introductory video.