A Land of Perfect Stories!

THE CZECH Republic is aptly called a land of stories. Prague, City of a Hundred Spires, a UNESCO monument and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. “One can get to know it in person!” says Milan Hovorka, Ambassador of the Czech Republic in India. With growing travel aspirations among Indians across demographics, activities such as wine tourism, spa tourism, pristine nature stays have been driving Indian tourists to the Czech Republic.

The Old Town Hall with the famous Prague astronomical clock. The winding lanes of the Jewish Quarter, which you know from the novels of Franz Kafka, steeped in the legend of the Golem. Enticing cafes, boutiques and sight-seeing cruises, the Palace Gardens and more. Each of Prague’s districts has its own characteristic atmosphere and unique charm. Prague presents itself to you as a changeable city, which likes to alternate styles: it is romantic and successful, ancient and modern, but above all it is a city that is cosmopolitan and is used to welcoming foreigners, especially Indians, explains the ambassador.

An average time spent in the Czech Republic is three-and-a-half days and to encourage more people, the tourism board is regularly conducting trade shows and tourism fairs.

Recently, the Czech Republic Authority along with VFS Global conducted a three city trade show – Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The India office in Mumbai has helped to gain more visitation and in order to expand the network of visa application centres – 16 centres across India have a tie up with VFS Global. “To achieve the target that we have set, there is a need to visit India quite often for promotion. Also, we plan to strengthen our base not only in the capital cities but in other parts as well,” said the Ambassador.

Moreover, Air Arabia announced the introduction of its new European destination, Prague in Czech Republic, direct from Sharjah in the UAE with officials stating that the inaugural flights to start from December 11 onwards.

The flights to Prague will operate 5 times a week from 13 destinations in India including Jaipur, Kochi, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Goa, Kozhikode, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Chennai, connecting via Sharjah. “We are genuinely interested in promoting people-to-people contact through tourism, student exchanges and culture. In 2017 nearly 25 million Indians went abroad and it is soon to touch 50 million. India is one of the fastest growing outbound tourism spots. I am pleased that we have been quite successful in our promotional activities,” said the Ambassador.

In the days to come, the aim is to promote not only Prague which is the most popular destination among Indians, but also other cities of the country, he added.

According to the Czech Republic Authority, in 2017 Czech Tourism had witnessed 85,580 Indian tourists and the country aims to receive more than one lakh Indian visitors by 2019-20. “Families, Millennials and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) are the three segments that we are targeting for the Indian market,” he said. He also added that initially the number of Indian tourists travelling to Czech was low but in the last three years, the number has grown to 150 per cent.

With 12 sites inscribed in UNESCO heritage list, today Prague is ranked as the sixth safest place in the World, informed the ambassador, who aims to look at the country as a prominent wedding destination in the times to come.