The vast majority of Czechs spend their vacations close to home

Most Czechs don’t travel very far for vacations, and that is
typical for people in the European Union.

Some
80 percent of Czechs travel domestically, according to Eurostat.

Across
the EU, about three-quarters of people stay in
their own country. “Some 73.3 percent [of
trips] were
domestic trips but in terms of nights spent and expenditure, domestic
trips accounted for 56.1 percent and 42.7 percent of the total
respectively,” Eurostat states, based in 2017 figures.

“For
most EU countries, the domestic market was dominant; only for
Belgium, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia this was not the
case. Belgian and Luxembourgish tourists made more outbound trips to
one single foreign country (France) than those made inside their own
country,” Eurostat said, adding that compared to 2016, the number
of tourist trips of the EU population increased by 4 percent.

Romanians
spend most of their time traveling domestically, at 94 percent,
while less than 2 percent of people from tiny Luxembourg stay home.

The
most popular destinations for EU residents leaving the EU are the US,
Switzerland and Turkey. “Destinations outside Europe made up only
15.1 percent of all outbound trips: 5.8 percent to America, 5.1
percent to Asia and 3.7 percent to Africa. Only 0.5 percent of trips
had Oceania as a destination,” Eurostat stated.

“Behind
the average at EU level, big differences were observed; at least one
in five outbound trips made by British tourists had a destination
outside Europe while no more than 5 percent of Bulgarian, Croatian,
Maltese, Romanian or Slovenian trips were to another continent,”
Eurostat added.

Cars are the preferred means of transport for most EU residents, while the French and Germans prefer to travel by train. Only people who live on islands prefer planes.

It
is hard to separate business for pleasure travel. In 2017, EU
residents made 1.255 billion trips for personal or professional
purposes and spent 6.374 billion nights during those trips. Tourist
expenditure amounted to EUR 505.172 billion.

For
Czechs, going to the cottage is still a big destination, but
increasingly it is not to the family cottage but to a rented one in
another location so people can experience something new. Cottages
with swimming pools or access to water recreation are in particular
demand.

For Czechs that travel abroad, Croatia is still the top country, followed by Slovakia, Italy, Greece, Austria and Egypt, according to the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ).

Separate
figures from NMS Market Research suggests that 47 percent of Czech
people plan their holidays long in advance and 37 percent who leave
it at the last minute. Less than a fifth go to the same place as
previously and do not have to plan anything.

Czechs
still tend to organize their own vacations. Some 2.5 million Czechs
made their own arrangements, while just over 2 million used a travel
agency.