Jan Herget, Managing Director, Czech Tourism

With over 2,000 heritage castles and chateaux on the one hand and beautiful spa towns offering medical healing on the other, the central European country of Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is looking at the niche Indian market of MICE and families positioning itself as a unique, affordable but premium destination.

As a relatively new destination for the Indian outbound tourists, what is your strategy for 2020?

Our aim is to go beyond Prague, the capital because as you rightly said the Czech Republic is new, but Prague has already been there now for some time. Now we would like the people who know Prague to go beyond it because we have many beautiful towns and many experiences, activities that one can do and not many people know about it in India. So, our aim is to promote cities beyond Prague.

And how do you plan to do that as you understand India is huge?

We are trying right now to concentrate on three cities, which altogether are six times bigger than the Czech Republic – New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. We are concentrating on two groups – MICE and families. For the newly-weds as well as the millennials, it is one of the best destinations. That’s why we are focussing on Bengaluru and the people working in the IT sector there that have money to travel, are a little bit more independent as our aim is to send the tourists beyond Prague. There is, of course, a market for classical tours like Prague, Budapest and Vienna that will always be there. But we want to make some inspirational brands; some new destinations that you don’t know, and we think are worth discovering.

How do you plan to improve the connectivity from India?

That’s our aim for the next two-three years, because we know there is a demand. Many people are going to Czechia via Vienna or Germany and we know and we have experienced this in different markets, that when we opened a direct route, the traffic went up. Actually it is our priority now, we are negotiating with Prague airport authorities, we are talking to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in India also and we hope that we can convince the airlines to introduce direct flights because we know that the market is there and we just have to start it.

You have VFS Global as your tourism representative in India, what about smooth visa facilitation?

I think right now, for the visa procedure is to see that it goes smoothly. We visited VFS and heard that their aim is to manage the whole procedure within 30 minute which I think is very accurate. Also, what I think is very good for the travellers, is that the Schengen visa law has changed so that you can apply six months in advance. I know that Indian travellers are little last-minute planners but if you have the option to ask for visa in advance, six months makes it much more comfortable and safer before you go.

(Clockwise from above) Prague Castle; The Czechs have been brewing beer since the year 993 and their most famous tipple has to be Pilsner, named after the city of Plzen in the west of the country; The Old Town Square in Prague is an historic square

Tell us about the experiences one must pick in Czechia?

I would say the first unique exclusivity we have is the beer. We have given birth to some of the world-famous brands like Pilsner and Budweiser from our towns of Pilsen and České Budějovice. Both the towns can claim to be the world’s beer capitals! The second unique thing is the castles. We have around 2,000 beautiful castles, which if you take the size of the country, would be the highest density of heritage per square km. Plus naturally, we have many UNESCO sites, again not only Prague but you can go beyond. Last year we got two new tags, so we have 14 UNESCO sites in our country. The third one is definitely nature, I call it soft adventure. It’s not like climbing the 4,000-metre high mountains all the time, but you can rent a bike or you can do rafting which is not dangerous but you can enjoy nature. For example, in south Bohemia we have a river named Vltava (Moldau in German) which is very famous for rafting.

The fourth experience is our spa towns. We have different types of spa towns for medical purposes but also for the luxury for pampering oneself and visitors can receive a variety of treatments. Interestingly, you can drink the water in the spa clinics, which is very specific. The healing touch of the spa towns and their mineral water springs could be a big draw for the Indians. The fifth, I would say is shopping. You can do shopping everywhere, but we have very unique handmade glass factory, where you can go inside and can make your own glass. So, it’s not only shopping but a unique experience that you can have.

What kind of gastronomical experiences can one expect in Czechia?

Part of the gastronomy is definitely drinking, so beer is there but what’s good is that we have both – the Czech traditional food as well as many Indian restaurants. Hence, if you like to enjoy the local gastronomy, it is amazing! From Michelin star restaurants to good public joints and Czech chains, most of them prepare modern Czech cuisine. In every big town, you will find good Indian food and many vegetarian restaurants.

What numbers you are looking at for the next one year?

I hope this year we manage to get over 100,000 but my personal aim is to get people outside Prague. So, it’s not only about numbers, but for me to promote Pilsen, Brno, Ostrava, Karlovy Vary etc which are a lot of fun! Indians still do not know much about them; so we are going to educate them more about these places and what they have in store.

What is your campaign strategy to position Czechia in the Indian market?

We have started with the influencer trips as social media is very important and we are concentrating on that. We will do some more trips, as well as classical trips too to promote the destination. We will continue to work with VFS in promoting Czechia in India. We do not intend to launch a big campaign as our focus is on the niche markets. Hence, we would like to work with select tour operators, influencers and top media. We intend to present a specific tourism product from Czechia which is unique, affordable and premium.

Published in India Outbound Magazine February 2020