CzechTourism inviting Russians to the "unknown" Czechia

- Mr Franěk, the official opening of CzechTourism is planned for May, what distingushed guests are expected to be present at the ceremony?

- The opening of CzechTourism in Ekaterinburg has been planned for over two years. The financial crisis introduced certain changes too. Now all issues have been resolved and the representative office of CzechTourism will open on 19 May 2010.

At the ceremony Czechia will be represented by the Czech tourism sector curator Rostislav Vondruska, the Minister for Regional Development of the Czech Republic, and his deputy Miroslav Kalous, as well as representatives of Czech holiday and health resorts. Miroslav Rames, the Consul General of the Czech Republic in Ekaterinburg, will also be present. Of course, we expect to see leaders of the government of the Sverdlovsk Oblast, the Ekaterinburg city administration, and the Urals tour operators.

- What Russian regions will be covered by the Ekaterinburg office?

- From Ekaterinburg the CzechTourism office will be dealing with the area from the Urals to Vladivostok. We will also be taking part in exhibitions in Asian cities - Baku, Tashkent, Astana, and Alma-Ata. It is worth mentioning that I will not be working alone, a Russian employee will be assisting me.

- I would like to point out that tourism sector in the Czech Republic has a very significant economic importance. It is responsible for 4.5% of the Czech GDP, virtually 10% of employable population work in the sector. The main goal of CzechTourism in Ekaterinburg is to increase the number of tourists travelling from the Urals regions to the Czech Republic. The action plan, or, as we call it - marketing plan - we have the participation of Czech tour operators in exhibitions held in various cities of the Urals and Siberia. In April we plan to take part in three events which will be held in Novosibirsk, Baku, and Ekaterinburg. For instance on 19 of April a workshop on tourism is planned by the Visegrad Four in the Urals capital. Visegrad Four is the association of four Central European countires - Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. Presentations of resorts of these four countries are planned during the event. In May CzechTourism will be taking part in the DalTour tourism exhibition which will be held in Vladivostok.

CzechTourism is also planning to involve Russian tour operators in the so called road show - the presentation by representatives of the most interesting Czech resorts and regions. On the other hand CzechTourism is planning to organise 5 special visits to Czechia for Russian tour operators and journalists. I am going to talk to Ekaterinburg TV regarding the filming of a 5-10 minutes documentary about the Czech Republic, working title being The Czech Route or The Unknown Czechia.

37 tour operators are accredited with the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Ekaterinburg, I am planning to meet with their representatives regularly, 2-3 times a month, informing them of new tourist products offered by the Republic.

- Czechia, no doubt, is familiar to the Russians. However, it has to be said that up until the end of 1999 about 450 thousand Russian tourists came to the Czech Republic annually. Since the visa regime had been introduced their number has dropped 6 times, down to 72 thousand. The goal for CzechTourism is to recover the figures of the nineties; to this end, we want to offer tourist products which would be interesting for the Russians.

Russian tourists, first of all, go to Czech resorts, i.e. Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně, Františkovy Lázně. However, Czechia can offer other types of holiday breaks.

For history aficionados there are 28 UNESCO memorials in the Republic, as well as numerous castles, palaces, churches, and parks. They, by the way, can be used for weddings and other celebrations. For those who lice active leisure we have special offers - golf tourism and cycling tourism. Connoisseurs of culture can come to Czechia during music festivals Prague Spring and Prague of Antonín Dvořák.

One of the new offers for tourists is holding conferences in Czechia. I would like to point out that many Russian companies already organise their congresses and conferences not in Russia but in the Czech Republic. We have more than 200 conference halls which were used during the Czech Republic chairing in the EU.

- You say 60%, according to my data this figure is much higher. No doubt, most of the tourists coming to Czechia visit Prague. Prague is a museum city where there are 38 thousand monuments of the past, we call the city the Golden or Hundred Headed Capital of Czechia. Prague is one of the few cities which is well preserved and had not been destroyed during the World War II. As well as historical sites, there are a thousand beer and wine restaurants interesting for both young people and middle-aged tourists.

However, in the future we are hoping to redirect a high number of tourists to the numerous resorts of Czechia and Moravia. In total there are 37 resort locations in Czechia.

- Last year around 300 Russian tourists visited Czechia, more than 100 thousand out of them are from the Urals. There is a direct flight between Ekaterinburg and Prague and this is very important for tourists. Ural Airlines and Czech Airlines run the flights. The crisis has affected the number of tourists, of course. According to the data provided by the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Ekaterinburg the umber of visas issued has dropped by a third. In 2008 this umber was 23 thousand, last year - 17 thousand.

This year the number of tourists is on the increase again, in January-March the number of issued visas has trebled. I do not think the number of tourists will rapidly grow in terms of the year's figures; it would ne nice, however, if those who have not been to Czechia so far would think of visiting our country.

- Would CzechTourism support the opposite direction - Czech tourists visiting the Urals?

- Of course. Our goals include finding a good tour operator who would be able to offer the Czechs tourist products which demonstrate the peculiarities of the Russian architecture, classic and modern etc. It should be remembered that the Czech tourists come to Russian to see cities - Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Now we need to promote cities of the Urals regions now, we do not, however, have a well developed programme which could be included in a tourist catalogue. There are interesting things for tourists there - churches, cathedrals, Russian brick and timber houses. I would like to point out that Czech tourists are very interested in Kamchatka, the so-called volcano peninsula. There is no service of acceptable standards there, for instance hotels like in Europe. I have visited Kamchatka 5-6 years ago and saw that small hotels are being built there.

There are problems with guides as well. Russian guides speak wonderful Russian and you fell as if you were in a theatre but when this is translated into English or German, she "soul" disappears. It is necessary to raise the professional level of guides. The Czechs can help in this respect.

In general, attracting tourists from all over the world requires thinking of all, even the smallest, details. For instance, when I came to Ekaterinburg I wanted to buy postcards and could not find them anywhere. There are no postcards with Ekaterinburg views, you could buy a photograph, but it is not the same. Postcards are important for tourists, people buy 20-30 of them to post them to friends and family. Ideally all hotels in Ekaterinburg have to have a specialised stand with postcards so you could choose the one you like.

- Historically Ekaterinburg is very important for Czechia. A little over a year ago a monument to the Czech Legionaries who founded the Czech Republic in 1918 has been opened in Ekaterinburg. Ekaterinburg, formerly Sverdlovsk, is a city twinned to the Czech city of Plzen. All this assumes the development of not only cultural, but trade and industry cooperation between Czechia and Ekaterinburg and the Urals Region as a whole. We are striving to make this cooperation mutually beneficial. Tourist sector is one of the key steps towards achieving this goal.