Prague kicks off the summer tourist season with the At Home in Prague (“V Praze jako doma”) campaign

‘Last summer season, we managed to attract over 70 thousand visitors with the ‘At Home in Prague’ initiative, and at least partially offset the drastic effects of the coronavirus crisis. This year, we have allocated CZK 60 million to support tourism and cultural institutions that are involved in the At Home in Prague programme. I believe that this will kick-start the approaching tourist season and hasten the return of visitors to the metropolis’ says Hana Třeštíková, Councillor for Culture and Tourism.

The programme was prepared by City Hall in cooperation with Prague City Tourism. Visitors can take advantage of the benefits on offer from the start of July until the end of August. The principle is the same as last year. For each night spent in a participating hotel or group accommodation facility in Prague, the visitor receives a voucher. This can then be used to gain free or discounted access to selected heritage sites, such as the Jewish Museum, the Vyšehrad National Cultural Monument or the Prague towers managed by Prague City Tourism. This time round, the vouchers will also facilitate access to live cultural events, such as the summer theatre season. If you are interested, you can book a hotel from mid-June on the project website  https://www.pragueunlocked.eu

One more novelty this summer and for the whole programme is the tourist tram. The new tram line no. 42 will run from Dlabačov, stopping at Prague Castle, Čechův most bridge, Náměstí republiky square, Wenceslas Square and from there to Újezd and back via Malostranská street in the direction of Pohořelec. Historical tram cars from the early 20th century or T-type cars from the turn of the 1950s and 60s will be used on the route.

‘This marks another benefit that Prague summer visitors can gain by redeeming their vouchers. We wanted to create an ecological alternative to the red tourist buses. You can hop on and off the tram throughout the whole day. A trained Prague City Tourism staff-member will also be on board. People will enjoy the ride and learn interesting tourist information about Prague’s heritage monuments and more’ says Adam Scheinherr, Deputy Mayor at Prague City Hall for the transport sector.

Prague City Tourism looks to this initiative to liven up the tourist sector, so hard hit by the pandemic. The company has prepared a number of benefits as well as tourism-related and cultural experiences for visitors. ‘We are looking to support both hotels and restaurants, as well as Prague’s heritage sites and cultural institutions in their reboot, and to attract as many tourists as possible to the Capital during the summer holidays. The programme has been created in close cooperation with the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of the Czech Republic and its Chairman Václav Stárek. He too is a firm believer that the programme will contribute to the City’s revival’ says František Cipro, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prague City Tourism. This year, the Capital is primarily preparing for domestic tourists, whose visits exceeded 2019 by some 16 percent last holiday season. According to Cipro, this is the course the Capital wants to take in the future.

The programme will also be supported by a nationwide campaign, once again fronted by singer Matěj Ruppert, who will share videos and information about the programme on his Instagram profile. This will be complemented by videos brimming with advice and tips from the well-known influencer Janek Rubeš, who will show visitors unconventional places in summer Prague, as well as how the whole programme works.

Prague City Tourism in cooperation with the CzechTourism agency is also preparing campaigns to attract guests from abroad. A particular focus will be cross-border markets such as Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia.

‘In cooperation with Prague City Tourism, we are planning a joint co-branding campaign from June to mid-August in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium, supported by outdoor advertising, B2B seminars for travel agencies as well as press and fam trips in these markets, complemented by Austria and Slovakia. The Agency has also signed an agreement with Prague City Tourism and Prague Airport on joint support for incoming tourism. On the part of CzechTourism, this is primarily about helping to negotiate direct flights to Prague and the Czech Republic’ adds Jan Herget, Director of CzechTourism’s head office.

All information about the program and a list of all the sights, places and cultural events involved in the project, including hotels, will be available on the pragueunlocked.eu website.

At Home in Prague 2020 in numbers:

• The At Home in Prague programme drew more than 70 thousand visitors to the Capital in 2020.
• On average, they each spent 3.2 nights here.
• More than 400 group accommodation facilities participated in the programme, more than 50% of which were 4-star and 5-star hotels.
• More than 60 important Prague cultural and tourist sites were involved in the programme.
• A total of CZK 121 million was allocated to the programme in 2020.
• The economic benefit of the At Home in Prague programme in 2020 can be quantified based on the average per visitor spend (CZK 2,737), totalling in excess of CZK 202 million.
• During the programme period, there was also an increase of a full 16% in the number of domestic tourists arriving in Prague during the holiday months, thus significantly narrowing the gap between domestic and international arrivals after many years.