Domestic tourism helped some Czech regions this summer, but Prague was left behind

The tourism sector saw a partial recovery between July and September, according to the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ). The summer season though, mainly saw demand for accommodation from Czech guests, while there was a large drop in foreign tourists.

Not all regions saw significant increases in domestic tourism. Prague suffered greatly due to the lack of foreign tourists and at the same time had the smallest increase of any region in domestic visits.

“The release of restrictions of international movements of persons valid in spring months brought only a partial return of foreign tourists to the Czech Republic. All key source foreign markets remained below last year's numbers. From the important ones, only Germany attained 90% of last year's arrivals in August 2020. Numbers of guests from other neighboring countries still decreased by several tens of percent,” the ČSÚ said.

In the third quarter of 2020, the total number of guests in hotels and other collective accommodation establishments reached 79.3% of what it had been in the same time in 2019, meaning there was a drop of 20.7%. The number of overnight stays in collective accommodation establishments reached 83.2% of what it had been.

The total number of overnight stays reached 17.4 million nights in the third quarter, which was a decrease by 3.5 million nights compared to the same time in 2019.

The number of overnight stays by foreign tourists fell by 68.5%. On the other hand, the number of domestic tourists using accommodation establishments increased by 17.2% more nights compared to the previous year.

Almost 6 million guests were accommodated in collective accommodation establishments in the the third quarter of 2020, which was a decrease by 1.6 million guests compared to Q3 2019.

The number of foreign tourists dropped by 2.3 million visits, and the higher number of guests from the Czech Republic could not compensate for this slump, according to ČSÚ.

Use of five-star hotels by Czechs increased 99.7%, year on year, but foreign visits only amounted to 27.7% of what they had been. In total, the number of visitors to five-star hotels was 38.7% of what it had been a year ago. Four-star hotels saw a 38% increase of Czech visitors, but only reached 59.3% of last’s years total.

Campsites and boarding houses, though, saw an overall increase in visits, up 17.8% and 13.8% respectively form last year.

As for a regional comparison, the number of guests increased in approximately half of the regions and the number of domestic guests increased in all regions. The Karlovy Vary region was most successful, with 62.1% more arrivals), followed by the Liberec region, up 26.3%, and the South Bohemia region, up 21.9%.

The numbers of overnight stays by residents increased, year on year, in all regions on average by 17.2%.

Prague, though, only saw an increase of visits by Czechs of just 5.2%, the lowest increase of any region, and foreign tourists were at 21.5% of what they were last year. In total, visits to Prague were at 32.5% of their Q3 2019 level.

Prague in terms of overnight stays also did poorly, with an increase of just 13.1% from Czechs. Overnight stays by foreigners were at 21.5% of last year’s figures and the combined total for overnight stays was 32.5% of what it had been a year ago.