
Domestic Tourism Flourishes as Prague’s Hotels Fill Up; Russians, Asians Still Missing

Many Prague hotels have been full for most of the summer as Prague has seen tourism returning to the city.
Following the lifting of pandemic restrictions, many foreign tourists are coming, mostly from neighboring states and other European countries, as well as the United States.
However, guests from Asia are still missing, and as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the decisions made, travelers
from Russia are as well. Some hoteliers are reporting record occupancy for July, even higher than in the pre-crisis year of 2019, while elsewhere it remains below this level in part due to the missing demographics.
The Czech Inn Hotels network has had occupancy recently floating around 95% of capacity. “Even after covid, we are the market leader in terms of Prague hotels. The customers are completely different,” said company owner Jaroslav Svoboda.
A high share of Czech tourists to Prague has bolstered numbers, which was vital throughout the pandemic when foreign travel was challenging. From abroad, guests come from neighboring countries and Europe in general.
Visitors from more far-flung locations are missing. The season so far has been, according to him, well above expectations set at the beginning of the year.
The occupancy of the Prague hotels of the OREA Hotels & Resorts chain is around 90 percent, and interest is higher than in the pre-pandemic
years, said Jiří Fontana, director of the network’s business strategy.
According to him, the demand for the second half of the holidays also indicates a similar or greater demand. “Even in September and October,
we are aiming for about 90 percent occupancy in Prague,” he said.
According to him, the fact that people can travel abroad more often shortens the length of their stays. While Czechs make up roughly 55 percent of guests across the OREA network portfolio, they represent only one quarter in Prague hotels.
In the NH Prague City and NH Collection Prague hotels, according to their general manager Petr Nešpůrek, occupancy is at 50 percent in the
first holiday month. At the time before the pandemic, capacities were about 90 percent full.
He anticipates high demand for September, October and November. “September could be the first month since March 2020 where we’re at 2019 revenue,” he said. He added that there are returning guests from the United States, Italy, and Germany, and there is a large domestic clientele.
All this comes as gateway airports into Europe from across the Atlantic have seen massive backups, flight cancellations, and wait times because of high demand for international travel and under-staffing issues in Europe.
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