Prague - German travel agencies have been increasingly popular with Czech travellers. Czech adventure seekers look especially for distant and exotic destinations.
A poll carried out jointly by the Czech Association of Travel Agencies and NetTravel.cz agency points to this recent trend.
Not only exotic places
Among the places sought most often are also less exotic countries such as Turkey. Thirteen percent of Czech customers of German travel agencies are reported to have chosen Turkey.
Among the 10 most popular destinations are also Greece (7 percent of Czechs) and Portugal (2 percent).
Read more: Travel bonanza: Czechs discover the world
The most popular is the Dominican Republic (11 percent), followed by Thailand and Egypt (each 9 percent), and Cuba and Tunisia (each 7 percent).
Czechs travel most of the time from Munich (41 percent) and Dresden (22 percent)
German travel agencies offer charter lines to exotic destinations all year round, in contrast to Czech agencies that fly to these places only in the wintertime.
Foreign agencies still marginal
About 2.3 percent of Czech tourists travelled with foreign travel agencies in the past quarter. Out of 2.2 million trips, this accounts for only 50,000.
Due to a 2006 law, the last summer holiday season was the first one when it was possible to buy trips with foreign travel agencies directly in the Czech Republic.
This forced foreign travel agencies to obey the same rules that Czech travel agencies are subjected to. They include, for example, having bankruptcy insurance.
Are German agencies cheaper? A "myth"
One of the most common myths is that services of foreign travel agencies are cheaper. The reality is that they cost approximately the same in Germany. Or, at least according to NetTravel.cz's analysis of pricing.
This travel agency gathered a list of prices and discovered that it is actually cheaper to use Czech travel agencies to travel to some destinations, while for other destinations German services are more convenient.
For example, it is cheaper to travel with Czech travel agencies to Egypt, some Greek islands or to Kenya. On the other hand, it is better to buy trips to Turkey, the Maldives or the Dominican Republic in Germany.
