The Italians discover that the patron saint of Charles Bridge is a Sicilian guy, while the Koreans think Jan Žižka is a woman. Prague City Tourism uses the results of humanities and social science research to reach out to more sophisticated tourists

Prague City Tourism is developing a new tourist app. In addition to technological product development, the organisation also commissioned research on ten selected key markets. The humanities part of the research brings specific narratives that connect key markets with Prague and thus aim at deeper motivation of foreign tourists to visit the city. The social science part of the research examines their categorisation and behaviour. 

"This is an internationally unique approach to destination management, where we utilise the findings of humanities research for the strategic targeting of high-end clientèle. This group of people are willing to spend more money on quality tourism products and services with high added value. This is another step to increase revenue from tourism in the capital city," explains Jana Adamcová, Vice President of Prague City Tourism, adding: “Tourists spend much less in Prague than in other comparable European cities. For example, in 2019 foreign tourists spent $5.6 billion in Prague, while in Amsterdam the figure was twice as much. And so, with the help of the Academy of Sciences, we have vowed to change that.” 

The results of the humanities part of the research will be used exclusively by Prague City Tourism in several areas. One will be the digital marketing campaigns it regularly invests in to target important source markets. Another is the development of a new destination website, the content of which will change individually for visitors depending on which country they are from. For example, visitors from Poland, Israel or South Korea, who have culturally and sociologically different backgrounds and different expectations from the city will all see different content on the website. The results of the research will also be taken into account in the development of new Prague City Tourism products and services, such as hiking trails or high-end souvenirs.  

The social science part of the research provided specific data on tourist behaviour and categorisation. While Asian travellers, for example, consider recommendations from relatives and friends when choosing a destination, British, French or American travellers, on the other hand, look almost exclusively for information online. Tourists from Asia come to Prague primarily for sightseeing, whereas European travellers can also be attracted to the city by gastronomy or entertainment. The research also showed that tourists from the United States spend the most money in the city, while Polish visitors are the lowest spending.  

"The analysis of various types of available data on tourists coming to Prague provided important information about their behaviour, preferences and interests. This allowed us to better target the narratives that were created by colleagues from humanities-oriented institutes of CAS ‘tailored’ to visitors from the most important countries with tourists that come to Prague", says Tomáš Kostelecký who is from the Institute of Sociology at CAS and is also research coordinator for CAS. 

Exotic Europe  

The Oriental Institute of CAS was one of the institutions involved in the project. Its staff suggested possible narratives that might appeal to tourists from China, Korea and Taiwan.  

According to researcher Hruby from the Oriental Institute, there are very few historical points of contact among travellers from Asia. Asian tourists come to see sights they know from photographs or places that have appeared on TV, as in the case of Korea's popular Lovers in Prague show. Overall, however, for many of them, the Czech Republic is part of an exotic European culture and they are often unable to distinguish the differences between countries.  

"That's why, with a few exceptions, we decided to take a different approach to narratives for Asian tourists and focus on certain phenomena. An example of this is the phenomenon of coffee drinking, thanks to which we can introduce Asian tourists to the past in the form of historic Viennese or Parisian cafés, as well as the present day of renowned baristas, while another would be the wine growing tradition in Prague and its associated culture," the scientist concludes.