The last two years have brought discouraging data from foreign tourists to the Czech Republic, the main cause being that linked to covid19, which during the first wave adopted an early lockdown followed by the closure of national borders. After the complete closure, the hotels and restaurants, as well as the entire tourism sector in the Czech Republic, hoped to return to normal. Now, the data is improving and the recovery is gradual, thanks to the relaxation of restrictions and the possibility of traveling to Europe more easily, showing only the Green Pass and without undergoing mandatory quarantines. The Czech Republic in recent years has tried to study strategies to bring tourism back to Prague at the pre-pandemic levels. For example, there was the renewal of the Czech Tourism website, a tool of great impact, which immortalizes every aspect of the Czech Republic, indispensable for tourists in Prague who want to discover and fully experience the capital. Tourists in Prague are mainly driven to the historical monuments of the capital. The number of paying visitors to Prague Castle, one of the main monuments affected by the influx of foreigners, has remained almost unchanged in the last two years for the summer months, but since mid-July there has been an increase in attendance. The Old Town Hall has also increased visitor numbers compared to last year, but never as much as they had before the pandemic.
Tourists in Prague have differed in recent years, it can be noted that compared to 2020 foreign tourists are increasing, mainly from neighboring countries, as well as from France, Spain, and Italy, a positive sign after the outbreak of the pandemic. While tourists from neighboring countries and states have slowly begun to return, domestic tourists have always supported local tourism, marking an increase in Czech hotel arrivals and stays on the market and recording record numbers in 2021. Tourism in Prague was also heavily influenced by changes and cancellations of flights from Asian countries. The tourism sector in Prague still suffers from the lack of Asians and Americans, some organized groups from the USA were seen in 2021, but certainly, we are still far from the percentages that were there before the pandemic. This increase in organized tourism can also be attributed to the fact that people want to return to travel and have stopped being afraid, so it is observed with optimism that the high number of visitors in the summer months creates a good financial basis for the autumn months.
Tourism in Prague, before the pandemic was characterized by the phenomenon of “over-tourism”, i.e. ever-increasing flows of tourists in the central area of the city, mostly made up of those who prefer to spend their holidays in the city at low cost. This caused a problem of management of guests, therefore to solve this problem a better distribution of tourists in Prague was needed, a possibility might be pushing visitors towards urban areas to seasonally adjust tourist visits. In the last two years, this has not happened anymore, and as regards foreign tourism there was a loss of 40% in comparison to 2019. Tourism in Prague before the pandemic welcomed a large number of tourists to zoos. But now, for example, the Kràlovedvor safari park was completely closed because it was unable to compensate for its losses. Meanwhile, in the Ostrava Zoo, about 40 percent of visitors were Polish before the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, while this year mainly Czechs went. In addition to the tourism field, the pandemic has also resulted in losses in other sectors, for example, in the spring of 2020 alone, manufacturing production and exports of goods fell by around 30%.
References: Camic.cz, Aktualne.cz, and Progetto.cz.
