Prague ranks among the most popular cities to visit in Europe
(Prague 13. 7. 2017) According to the European Cities Marketing association benchmarking report, Prague ranks the fifth in the number of bednights spent by foreign visitors and seventh in a total number of bednights.
The city tourism in Europe is continuously increasing. The average growth of bednights in 126 European cities for 2016 amounts 4,8%. The 5,5% increase of bednights in Prague is among the highest of the observed sample.
With the total amount of 16,8 million bednights (+5,5%) Prague surpassed, for example, Vienna, Hamburg or Amsterdam. With the amount of 15 million (+4,7%) bednights spent by foreign visitors, Prague performed better than Berlin, Vienna, Madrid or Budapest.
The main source markets of the city tourism in Europe are the United States of America, Germany or the United Kingdom, from where approximately 30% visitors come. The number of tourist from China is steadily growing in 2016 we observe an increase of 3,8%. On the other hand, the amount of Russian visitors has decreased by 9,7%.
Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, European Cities Marketing President, says: "We saw another exceptionally successful year for city tourism in Europe, despite major challenges arising. The terrorist attacks in Europe, and particularly in Paris, show the volatility, importance and resilience of tourism. Overseas markets such as China or Japan are particularly sensitive towards perceived risk which resulted in a negative performance in 2016. However, since the last quarter of 2016 city tourism in Europe is back on track: visitor numbers are strongly and steadily recovering for Paris as well as for source markets which were decreasing for years, such as Russia. City tourism in Europe in 2016 was "tossed by the waves but does not sink".