Prague gears up for summer season and launches marketing campaigns, targeting 35+ travellers and families with children

“The summer season is one of the busiest times of the year for tourism. The newly launched marketing campaigns will serve as a springboard to welcome domestic and international guests to Prague, with visitor numbers increasing all the time. I think it is also worth stressing that we have pledged to plough a portion of the tourist taxes collected from their stay back into the tourism sector, so the money being spent on these campaigns comes from tourists and does not cost the locals a penny,” said deputy culture and tourism minister Jiří Pospíšil.

“Our systematic marketing campaigns help to shape tourism in the capital in a way that we can control. The campaigns are clearly designed to motivate tourists to visit Prague who will spend more money, explore sites beyond the centre, and take a deeper interest in the city. The fact that we are already witnessing this, incidentally, is supported by data that has been made available by Mastercard,” adds František Cipro, chairman of the Prague City Tourism board. 

Three campaigns have been lined up for this year. Prague City Tourism has teamed up with Prague Airport and CzechTourism to launch the digital campaign Stay in Prague, which targets the European, American and Asian markets. This is an online campaign on selected digital platforms that draws on behavioural data from Mastercard, the results of humanities research conducted by the Czech Academy of Sciences, and enquiries from guide services in order to reach the target audience as effectively as possible. The end result is that the advertising will be personalised and make more of an impact. 

The At Home in Prague campaign concentrates on domestic tourism, which has been following an upward trajectory over the past two years, with Czechs accounting for a full quarter of all visitors. This trend is confirmed by the Czech Statistical Office’s most recent data, covering the first three months of 2023, which show that more than 350,000 Czechs came to the capital. The main face of the campaign is the band Tata Bojs, who will feature in all the visuals and showcase the city’s bohemian soul through local artists and the people who live in Prague. It also helps to promote the image of Prague as a living city and not just one big museum. The campaign is complemented by videos introducing the various districts of Prague.

Alongside its support for domestic tourism, Prague City Tourism will also be continuing Enjoy Respect Prague this year. This is a campaign to educate visitors, in a relatable and accessible way, about the rules and culture underpinning how they should behave in the city. “It is important, especially in order to respect the people who live and work here, that inbound tourists respect and observe local rules,” says Jana Adamcová, vice-chair of the board, adding, “The campaign builds on a World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) initiative to promote sustainable tourism that many European cities have signed up to.” The campaign includes outdoor and printed advertising to inform tourists, for example, that they are not allowed to be noisy or cause a disturbance after 10 p.m., and advising them where to park their rented scooters when they are done with them. The campaign is being run in cooperation with Prague City Hall and the borough of Prague 1.