Almost as many foreign tourists as guests from the Czech Republic arrived at domestic hotels last November. This follows from an analysis by the Institute of Tourism based on data from the Czech Statistical Office. While 587,517 foreigners stayed in hotels in the Czech Republic, there were 559,337 residents. This was a total of 1,146,854 guests, which – if we compare last November with the same period in 2022 – means 15% more travelers. And compared to November 2019, i.e. before the coronavirus pandemic, only 2% fewer tourists.
Last November, the largest number of guests came to domestic hotels from Germany (116,723, +9% year-on-year). This was followed by the Slovaks (58,274, year-on-year +12%), the British (39,523, year-on-year +50%), the Poles (32,509, -6% year-on-year) and the Americans (31,685, year-on-year +37%). Except for Poland and Ukraine, foreign tourists from the TOP 10 arrival countries of the Czech Republic, if we take last November and November in 2022, increased.
Italians (31,275, +55%), Ukrainians (19,547, -8%), French (18,502, +17%), Spaniards (18,347, +62%), and Austrians (18,118, +17%),” says František Reismüller, director of the Czech Tourism Office – CzechTourism, and adds: “In the TOP 10 arrival countries of the Czech Republic, Spaniards and Italians increased the most year-on-year. Overall, however, tourists from Asia have started traveling significantly more, which is related to the direct air routes that have been put into operation. Approximately 9x more Taiwanese arrived (16,622 vs. 1,904) year-on-year. 3x more guests from Saudi Arabia (2,015 vs. 748) and approx. 2x as many Koreans as in November 2022 (17,902 vs. 7,288). Now we can expect that together with the new flights, on which we are intensively working with Prague Airport and Prague City Tourism as part of the Touchpoint project, there will be an increase in visitors from abroad.”
Although last November the number of guests in domestic hotels abroad almost equaled those from the Czech Republic, if we compare the situation with the period before the coronavirus pandemic, i.e., in November 2019, foreigners arrived by 15% less, residents by 18% more. The largest drop in the number of travelers concerned Russia (-93%), Israel (-81%) and China (-80%).
“From our analysis, it is clear that there are still fewer guests of good standing from abroad than before the coronavirus pandemic. More specialized offers of hotels, restaurants, and other services, i.e. so-called luxury tourism, can help to change this – in addition to the mentioned direct air connections. The global “luxury travel” market, which was estimated at less than 2 trillion USD in 2022, should increase by 6% in the long term,” says Petr Janeček, head of the Institute of Tourism of the Czech Tourism Office – CzechTourism.
“In this context, domestic spas and wellness centers have great potential. In addition to the fact that last year we intensively participated in the success of the ESPA European Spa and Balneology Congress, which took place in Karlovy Vary, in cooperation with the destination agency Živý kraj, we also implemented a campaign to support this area in the Czech Republic. And spas, along with active tourism as an option for active rest, are the main communication topic of Czech tourism this year. Everyone can choose and enjoy our spas in the spirit of world trends,” concludes Veronika Janečková, director of the product management, research and B2B cooperation department of the Czech Tourism Office – CzechTourism.
Information on the number of tourists in domestic hotels by individual month and country, including a comparison with the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, can be found at https://tourdata.cz/data/navstevnost-v-hotelech-2023-vs-2019-2022/.