Five million tourists stayed in hotels, guesthouses, and campsites in the Czech Republic in the second quarter of this year. The number of guests did not match the pre-Covide period, with almost 5.8 million guests arriving at mass accommodation establishments in the Czech Republic in the second quarter of 2019, compared to nearly 5.5 million a year earlier. Compared to the same period last year, this year’s figure represents an increase of 229 percent.
This year, the number of overnight guest stays rose to 12 million in Q2. It increased by 190 percent year on year. This is according to data released by the Czech Statistical Office (CSO) on Tuesday.
5 028 288 people were accommodated in mass establishments from the beginning of April to the end of June. The majority of them were Czechs, who numbered 3.1 million. Domestic clientele prevailed in all regions except Prague, where almost three-quarters of the guests were foreigners.
Traditionally, Germans have been predominant among foreign visitors in the Czech Republic, accounting for more than a quarter of the foreign clientele in the establishments surveyed. The second largest group was Slovaks, and the third largest group was guests from Poland.
“The performance of accommodation establishments in this year’s Q2 has not yet reached pre-pandemic volumes. There is still a shortage of foreign visitors, with only 65 percent accommodated compared to 2019. While the number of domestic guests has already surpassed the results of Q2 2019,” said Pavel Vančura, head of the Tourism and Environment Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office.
Domestic tourists spent seven percent more nights in mass accommodation establishments than before 2019. In contrast, the number of overnight stays of foreign guests was 36 percent lower than three years ago.
The number of Czechs more than doubled
Compared to Q2 last year, which was significantly affected by the covid and anti-epidemic measures, the number of both Czech and foreign guests staying here this year has increased.
“The number of domestic visitors has more than doubled, and the number of foreign guests has also increased significantly compared to last year,” said Marie Boušková, director of the CSO’s Department of Statistics on Trade, Transport, Services, Tourism, and the Environment.
Tourism recovery in the Czech Republic benefited mainly from hotels, where seven out of ten tourists stayed. The hotel segment recorded an increase in visitor arrivals to 3.5 million, a fourfold increase year on year.
Arrivals to guesthouses accounted for 14 percent of total visitor arrivals, with a 143.3 percent year-on-year increase. The start of the camping season saw 270,000 arrivals, up 59.3 percent from last year.