The municipality’s coalition agreed with the city tourism agency Prague City Tourism as and the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of the Czech Republic on the intention to increase the rate. Together, they are to sign a memorandum in which the city commits itself to using about half of the money collected from tourists for marketing campaigns and to support festivals, exhibitions or congresses with the potential to attract more visitors. In general, it should be an investment targeted at guests who are interested in culture and history, or at congress participants.

Hundreds a year

According to Deputy Mayor Pavel Vyhnánek (Prague itself), the metropolis could receive a few hundred million extra crowns a year thanks to the increase in the fee. That is, if the number of visitors approaches the time before the start of the pandemic.

Vyhnánek reminded that the accommodation fee is the only tool by which Czech municipalities can directly compensate for the costs associated with tourism and through which they can contribute to economic benefits. Tourist revenues from collected taxes are not in the state budget.

“Prague with a higher accommodation fee of 21 crowns per night stands both within and for a number of Czech cities, recalled Vyhnánek and a stay at a tax rate in European capitals,” two euros per night have the cheaper ones. Not even four euros or six are exceptional.

“We want to show the best that Prague can enter, and thus make its image a destination full of history, monuments, culture and quality gastronomy. We will be marketing campaigns for a cultured clientele, which is the greatest benefit for the city. Such a visitor does not choose his destination according to the amount of the accommodation fee, but according to what he can place, “councilor Hana Třeštíková (Prague herself) defended the plan.

Gradual return of tourists

According to the president of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of the Czech Republic, Václav Stárek, the fee and subsequent use of income directly in the tourist segment can help the sector affected by the unexpected crisis and which directly or indirectly employs a tenth of Praguers.

According to Stárek, tourists are returning to Prague slowly, but the trend is positive. “At the beginning of the summer, the average occupancy of Prague hotels was around twenty percent. Today we are in our forties, “said Stárek, reminding that even thanks to the previous pressure of the hotel association, the tourist tax is no longer part of the price of accommodation. Sojourn fees have been paid to the city for some time, not by the accommodation facility, but by the guests. And they are counting on it.

Hospitality in crisis

There were also dissenting voices from the hotel business. “I do not consider the increase in fees at a time when the hotel industry is going through the biggest crisis in recent years to be happy. There is a great deal of uncertainty in the industry, which is why I think it would be better for the relevant people to generally think about how to help the hotel industry than to burden the industry with an increase in fees. In addition, the total accommodation costs for the end customer will increase by increasing the surcharge, “noted Gorjan Lazarov, Director of the Orea Hotels & Resorts Hotel Network.

The coalition would like to increase the fee approved at the December council meeting. It would thus apply from the first day of the year.