The travel industry...this phenomenon is an important part of life for many of us. We live it and breathe it in the Czech Tourist Authority. And we have been thriving in the business now for 25 years. Come see how we support tourism across all Czech regions and promote our beautiful country abroad!
Though Prague as a region constantly leads in the ranking of incoming foreign tourists in collective accommodation establishments, other regions are also rising in popularity. Their visitation last year even grew faster than in the capital city. Behind this great success is long-term promotion of our regions in the world, as well as e.g. cooperation on specific projects with Asian countries.
The interest of Czechs in taking a domestic holiday has risen in recent years, whereas a strong growth in popularity of holidays spent in the Czech Republic has been evident since 2015, when a million more Czech tourists came to stay in collective accommodations establishments than in previous years. This is given by the increased standard of living of Czechs but also by safety factors or more refined marketing of individual regions.
Each year, the Czech Tourist Authority compiles a ranking of the most visited tourist destinations. In 2018, we monitored just under a thousand objects. The Czech Tourism Institute focused this year on the TOP 50 attractions across the entire republic and mapped visitation in individual regions and categories.
There are 46 five-star hotels within Prague city limits. They include e.g. Radisson Blu Alcron, Hilton, Marriot, Jalta and Four Seasons. In Vienna, which is not only similar in size to Prague but also shares with it a common historical “genealogy”, there are only 21 five-star hotels.
The highest average amount of foreign tourist spending in regions outside Prague takes place right here in the Karlovy Vary Region. Foreign visitors spend their money here mainly on accommodations and shopping.
The number of tourists from South Korea grew by 77% in the South Moravian Region in 2017. This high growth was influenced not only by the general popularity of the Czech Republic in Asia, but also by intense work of Czech Tourist Authority’s foreign representation in Seoul, such as through “press trips” to Czech regions for South Korean journalists and bloggers.
Czech Tourist Authority is an annual partner of cultural, sports, culinary and social events that have inherently strong potential for tourism. When selecting partners, we take into account the number of domestic and foreign visitors, the importance of the event, consistency with the agency's marketing plan, the economic benefits of the given event and its promotional and PR potential.
Czech Tourist Authority was a partner in 2017 of the so-called Top 30 Events. It concerns both sporting and cultural events, some having a long tradition (Prague Spring, Colours of Ostrava, etc.), and elsewhere it involves an entirely new event (Laver Cup).
Besides the top events, Czech Tourist Authority takes part each year as a partner in over 100 regional events.
The All-Sokol Slet, a gymnastics festival held to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the country, attracted 39,000 visitors to Prague. The financial effect of this event was CZK 75 million that Prague, or respectively the Czech Republic, would not have gained had the event not been held.
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Czech Tourist Authority is also mapping this year the potential of several key sporting and cultural events that it supports. The aim of the analysis is to ascertain not only the attractiveness of the given event, but also the overall reach and economic impact on tourism. This year, we focused on Prague Spring, Castles CZ – Kunětická hora, the All-Sokol Slet, the Fresh Festival in Pilsen, the Continental Cup in Athletics and the event Bike for Life.
This workshop whose tradition reaches back to 2015 aims to interconnect Czech businesses, representatives of regions, districts and foreign delegates. We prepare the workshops as a series of pre-arranged 12-minute meetings. In the framework of this two-day meeting, over 1,000 individual meetings will be held. The event itself will be preceded by five-day fam trips in selected regions of the Czech Republic.
Since 2010, we have organized the Tourism Forum conference, whose aim is to provide information on current topics and mediate the sharing of examples from good practice in tourism. Each year, around 150 participants take part in the forum, made up of representatives of regions and destination managers, businesses, operators and administrators of tourist attractions, as well as members of academia.
The Tourfilm Festival is the world’s oldest international film festival thematically based on tourism. Ongoing since 1967, its mission is to introduce and appraise documentary and promotional films and commercials whose content and artistic refinement have contributed to developing both domestic and foreign tourism.
The eighth consecutive Tourism Forum took place in 2018. The first such event took place in 2011 in Pardubice, and this year once again we headed to Hradec Králové.
In the framework of Travel Trade Day, over 1,000 individual meetings took place between buyers from around the world and Czech representatives of destinations, tourist attractions and other entities.
This year, 435 films are competing in the Tourfilm Festival Along with their competition achievements, a record 64 countries have registered in the competition, and growth has been registered mainly from exotic destinations like Equator, Peru, the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, Nepal and the Dominican Republic.
For 2017, we prepared in cooperation with the agency WMC Grey the creative concept “Baroque Through All of the Senses”. This links back to the long-term concept of presenting the Czech Republic as a land of stories. In support of domestic and incoming tourism, CzechTourism Authority implemented the media campaign representing the main Baroque monuments in the country.
In 2018, we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of independent Czechoslovakia. This time, the Destination campaign introduces our country through captivating stories from all corners of today’s Czech Republic. We focused thematically on architecture and design, lifestyle, the culinary and café scene or important Czech brands that still resonate worldwide.
In cooperation with the production company Bedna films and director Jan Pavlacký, we shot a timeless video, which – in a trendy way and dynamically - presents six destinations – “highlights” – across the Czech Republic. The video commercial serves as promotional material for travel organizations.
In our campaigns and in marketing targeting, we have worked many years with three groups. “Cool” – ensuring young people aged cca 26–34, “pleasure seekers” – families with and without children – active people aged cca 35–54 and “pleasure seekers” – active seniors – wealthier tourists aged cca 55+.
Number of impressions generated by the campaign Baroque. This took place from April to August 2017 and focused on supporting domestic tourism. The main communication aim of the campaign was efficient addressing of the target group of so-called pleasure seekers.
In 2018, we announced the holding of the 6th annual popular competition DestinaCZe. Presenting this year's winner – the most popular domestic tourist destination – the Timber Trail, Krkonoše. The logic behind the competition is mainly to support domestic tourism and inspire people to travel through the regions of the Czech Republic.
As an agency, we issue publications and brochures each year in support of domestic and incoming tourism, both in Czech and in several language mutations. Among the favourite are the titles Czech Treasures of UNESCO, the annual Destination Manual, Baroque Czech Republic Through All of the Senses, Czech and Slovak Common Century and Active Holiday.
From 2014 to 2018, CzechTourist Authority published 230 titles containing thousands of pages of graphics, photographs and texts.
We have the main titles and profile contents translated into 17 language versions
Czech Tourist Authority currently has available 1,5000 photographs that it uses on Websites, in its own publications and in media outputs.
In 2018, Czech Tourist Authority published the first complete guide (since 1992) of all Czech landmarks or areas inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The unique brochure was enthusiastically received in the CR and abroad.
An entirely new editorial series has been created to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia led by the photo book Czech and Slovak Common Century.
Czech Tourist Authority has 23 foreign representations around the world. Their aim is to promote the CR as the ideal tourist destination in given localities. These foreign branches implement wide-ranging marketing activities and take part in trade fairs and exhibitions. Their representatives organize their own promotional events, and they work with local and Czech entities alike.
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In July 2018, Ostrava became the venue of a global meeting of Internet content creators TBEX (The Travel Blog Exchange Europe). Up to 500 bloggers and influencers from 43 countries worldwide came to the CR. Our foreign representations for the USA and Canada brought this international conference to Central Europe – for the very first time. Participants got to know not only the Moravian-Silesian Region but thanks to fam trips, they basically got to see the entire republic.
In cooperation with partners via so-called press & fam trips, we brought nearly 1,300 foreign journalists and travel agency representatives to the Czech Republic in 2017. A new market on which our agency is concentrating is the Near East. Last year, it led a delegation to the CR of the Omani Princess, H. H. Dr. Mona bint Fahad bin Mahmoud Al Said.
In 2018, we signed a memorandum of cooperation and common promotion of the Czech Republic abroad with three more partners – Václav Havel Airport Prague, the Central Bohemian Region and the organization Prague City Tourism. One recent example of coordination and cooperation of the engaged institutions is the acquisition of a direct flight from Philadelphia, PA, USA, to Prague. The first flight took place in May 2018, followed by a media campaign assisted by influencers.
This year we also became the seventh partner of Czech Team, a common platform of state institutions involved in support of business, innovations and export. This project mainly aims to simplify access for companies to offer state support and guidance in the offer of their respective services. Among its members are CzechTrade and CzechInvest.
TBEX (The Travel Blog Exchange), the largest world gathering of bloggers, vloggers, travel content creators and tourism professionals active on social media, took place in Ostrava in 2018.
In 2017, we had official exhibitions in 21 major domestic and foreign tourism-oriented trade fairs. Among the largest events abroad are the annual trade fairs ITB Berlin, WTM London and MITT Moscow. In Moscow, the Czech Republic won the 2017 title of “Best Spa Destination”.
In 2017 in the framework of trade fairs held with our official exhibition, we were able to address over 1,600,000 visitors to whom we presented what the destination Czech Republic has to offer, where to travel to and why. This year, we emphasized support for regions and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Czechoslovakia.
Over 250 exhibitors from the ranks of commercial and non-commercial entities, companies and institutions take part each year in trade fairs with official exhibitions. Not only regions or cities of the Czech Republic present themselves at these trade fairs, but also individual hotels, spas, carriers and tour operators.
Czech Tourist Authority’s budget for 2017 totalled CZK 440 million. Thanks to the agency's feverish activity, CZK 9.2 billion Crowns came back to the public budget. This pushed the return on investment up to a ratio of 1: 21.
The ratio of tourism to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fluctuated over the long term at around 3%, which surpasses e.g. agriculture, forestry and the fishing industry. However, it concerns a cross-industry sector and it thus impacts all sectors of the national economy and represents a crucial benefit to regional development. If we were then to take into account the direct and indirect effect, the ratio of tourism to GDP reaches 7.7 %.
This number says what value in CZK media space represents gained free of charge thanks to marketing and PR activities. The value of media space obtained thanks to activities of foreign representations of Czech Tourist Authority in 2017 reached CZK 3.8 billion.
Tourism at both the national and regional level forms a key economic activity. In 2016, over 231,000 people were employed in the field. Tourism thus represents a 4.4% share in the total employment in the Czech Republic, meaning that every 23rd Czech works in travel.
In its marketing materials and during all activities, CzechTourist Authority uses the brand Czech Republic - Land of Stories. This destination brand was introduced in 2012. In the official marketing concept of tourism, it then works with the name Czech Republic. The Nation Brand Index monitors the value of this brand, and it ranked a respectable 32nd place in 2017.
For 14 years, we have administered one of the most popular Websites for support of domestic tourism in regions, and support of tourist attractions throughout the Czech Republic.
The portal Czechtourism.com, focused on complex promotion of the tourism potential of the Czech Republic abroad, was visited in 2017 by nearly three million users. The Website attracts potential visitors in ten language mutations through stories of cities, personalities, architecture and regions, but also through the presentation of individual tourist destinations. It regularly features articles on current events in the Czech Republic.
The Web portal Kudyznudy.cz currently offers over 75,000 tips for trips. In 2017, the Website was viewed by a total of 13.5 million visitors and the total frequency climbed to a value of 47.5 million views. The strongest age category is made up of readers aged 25 to 34. The greatest percentages of users are from Prague, Central Bohemia and South Moravian.
Czech Specials is a partner project of CzechTourist Authority, the Association of Chefs and Pastry Chefs of the Czech Republic and the Czech Association of Hotels and Restaurants. It popularizes Czech cuisine in the traditional and modern sense, and it promotes and supports restaurants offering this cuisine. And it ultimately brings more guests to quality Czech restaurants.
The most famous Czech author of cookbooks was writer and revivalist Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová. In the past century, Czech cuisine has undergone certain development, we know how to make it lighter, we assimilate foreign trends and we often encounter “fusion” with other world cuisines. So, in this cookbook, we return back to the basics – back to the roots of what Czech and Slovak gastronomy has to offer.
In 2017 and 2018, CzechTourist Authority acted as a national marketing agency. For the celebrations and commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Czechoslovakia, we prepared a unified marketing concept and media campaign. We engaged important state institutions into the “Common Century“project; important figures from the world of sports, science and culture lent their support. The celebrations reached a climax in Prague on October 28, 2018.
The symbol of the prepared marketing campaign is made up of the national Czech and Slovak flags painted on faces with the words in either Czech or Slovak I wouldn't change . The faces of the campaign were such personalities as Antonín Panenka, Emília Vašáryová, Jan Pirk, Taťána Gregor Brzobohatá and Major General Emil Boček.
The main actors of the central television and radio commercial were actors Viktor Preiss and Táňa Pauhofová, representatives of Czech and Slovak cultural life.
We created this video commercial in a historical mood mainly for use at the 51st annual international film festival based on tourism – Tourfilm. Here too, the 100th anniversary since the founding of Czechoslovakia resonated strongly
The faces of the campaign Common Century are important Czech and Slovak personalities whose professional or personal life is linked to the Czech Republic or Slovak Republic. CzechTourist Authority chose to use of the concept of living personalities instead of references to historical personalities of the century based on professional research - the wishes of citizens.
As a part of the Common Century project, we introduced a best photography competition in several categories. In the year of celebrations and commemoration of the 100 years since the founding of Czechoslovakia, this of course concerned films from our homeland. The best ones were announced at the 51st annual festival Tourfilm, which our agency also organizes. From the photographs one can see and feel that the authors “would not change” and that the Czech Republic is super!
Sources and photo authors:
UpVision, Jiří Jiroušek, © Pražské jaro / Prague Spring Festival 2017 - Petra Hajská
Authors of graphics:
Renata Kasalová, Kristina Kadlas Blümelová, Markéta Vogelová, Denis Chripák (designer)