Travel Agents gave different evaluations for this year’s summer season in the Czech Republic.

The summer season is coming to an end in the Czech Republic, and travel agents are ready to give their preliminary results. Their estimations turned out to be ambiguous: according to one side of the market’s players, the current results exceeded those of the previous summer, but others are sure that the figures for the Czech Republic could be even better.

According to the words of the director of the “DVM-tour” Company Vladislav Salatov, there was a 15% increase in this destination, however after the initial surge in spring there was a levelling off in demand. “In June we witnessed an excess of flights available, which significantly increased competition on the market. Having said this, August seems to be going by without any real problems, flights are being filled up fine”, - Mr Salatov commented.

The director of the “Bedi-tour Group” Companies Prague department Vladimir Bikov believes that summer sales for the Czech Republic will finish with a plus: “If in June and July Russians were more inclined to desire a holiday on the warm sea, then August is typically the time for excursional tourism – the demand for these kind of tours in the Czech Republic is on the rise at the moment”. The expert explains that amongst our compatriots the most popular tour is a week-long one, where during this time Russian tourists want to see not only the Czech Republic, but also neighbouring Austria and Hungary.

“This year the season definitely shifted towards early spring. April has become the leader in sales, however already in May the demand fell, mainly because of a rise in the cost of flights. The beginning of August also left a bit to be desired, but towards the end of the month we’re catching up on everything we missed”, - said the director of this destination of the “Travel System” Company, Olga Shevchenko. According to her words, at the moment the markets seem to be able to avoid a large amount of special offers, however a certain amount of surplus in transportation is still evident. In order not to “burn up”, we tried to regulate the amount of transportation available in advance, since the period from July until August in the Czech direction traditionally gives way to Spring and Autumn in terms of business”, - Ms Shevchenko pointed out.

Having said this, travel agents gave a steady “Grade B” for the depth of sales during autumn. In particular, Vladislav Salatov reports, that excursional tours for September are already actively being sold, and health resort tours are booked 3 months in advance, that means until the end of October. From the words of Olga Shechenko, there are already people that are willing to visit the Czech Republic during the New Year however those tours have not gone on sae just yet. Travel agents must decide on prices before this period starts, which will most probably be done after the autumn exhibitions.

The “Visit Europa” Company is observing a somewhat different picture towards the end of summer. “Summer sales for the Czech Republic have practically not risen at all since last year and there is actually even evidence of a sort of drop in certain areas”, - told us the General Director Valentina Mironova. In particular she turned her attention on the fact that after the launch of direct flights by the “Czech Airlines” company from Ufa and Nizhniy Novgorod, part of the “Czech tourist flow” moved from Moscow out to the regions.   The expert also noticed that traditionally, summer isn’t a peak season for the Czech Republic, mostly because during this period tourists give their preferences to sea resorts. “However we’re expecting an increase in the flow of tourists during the autumn months. Judging by Karlovy Vary, were already witnessing a deficit of hotel rooms for September-October”, - explained Ms Mironova.

It’s interesting that business in the Czech Republic has felt an increase in activity from Russian tourists. Czech shops, that specialise in luxury goods, sharply increased their turnover in the first half of 2012 thanks to foreign tourists, first and foremost Russian ones, reports the Czech information agency with reference to Adel Kupkov, a representative from the Global Blue Company. The Global Blue Company returns the value added tax (VAT) to foreign tourists, and thanks to this, it is possible to observe citizens from which country buy more frequently. “In comparison to the same period of time last year, turnover of luxury goods in the Czech Republic has risen 35% this year”, - Ms Kupkova announced. According to her words, tourist from Russia buy the most goods from the luxury category – 42%, in second place are guests from China – 11%. Just to compare: tourists from the Ukraine make up 3% and from Japan – 2%.

More often in the Czech Republic, Russian tourists purchase trendy clothes, watches and Bohemia glass, whereas Chinese tourists turn their attention to watches and jewellery. Traditionally tourists spend most of their money on Prague’s most fashionable street – Paris St, in the old Jewish quarter.