Tourism - 3. quarter of 2008

In Q3 2008, the number of overnight stays at collective accommodation establishments decreased by 5.9% year-on-year, the number of guests went down by 3.3%. The number of overnight stays as well as guest increased only in three and more-star hotels. Remarkable drop was, on the contrary, reported by camps, holiday dwellings, hostels for tourists and other cheaper collective accommodation establishments where not only arrived fewer guests but also stood shorter time than last year.
Graph 1
The number of overnight stays totalled 14.3 million in Q3; this was by 5.9% less than in the same period of the previous year. The number of overnight stays of nonresidents went down by 1.1% and residents by 9.5%. The growth was reported by hotels from three-star up. On the contrary the considerable drop felt the keepers of camps, holiday dwellings, hostels for tourists and other cheaper collective accommodation establishments which particularly rely on domestic guests and are influenced by weather. The similar situation was as for geographical point of view. The number of overnight stays went up only in Prague (+2.7%) and Karlovarsky Region (+1.3%) where there is a majority of upper-category hotels. There was a decrease in other regions, the highest in Stredocesky and Vysocina Region. The average length of overnight stays decreased from 3.4 to 3.3 nights (foreign guests from 3.1 to 3.0; domestic guests from 3.6 to 3.5 nights).

In Q3 2008, a total of 4.4 million guests was recorded at collective accommodation establishments; this was 3.3% down on Q3 2007. Foreign and domestic guests arrived identically 2.2 million; this was by 0.4% more and 6.6% less, respectively. The highest number of guests (1.2 million) was at three-star hotels which also reported the highest growth in number of guests (+8.1%). The highest year-on-year growth in number of guests (+11.9%) was at four-star hotels with 0.9 million guests. The growth was recorded also at five-star hotels with 0.2 million of guest. Predominant part of clients compose foreigners; residents visit such hotels for the time being seldom. There were 1.4 million quests in Capital Prague; this was by 4.7% more than in the same period of the previous year. The highest increase of arrivals of nonresidents was reported in Olomoucky and Moravskoslezsky Region (+11.3% and +7.8%, respectively). In contrast, the highest drop of number of nonresidents was recorded in Ustecky (-18.4%) and Liberecky Region (-14.4%).

At spa accommodation establishments were recorded 2.1 million overnight stays of guests; this was 1.6% down year-on-year. The number of overnight stays of nonresidents represented 0.8 million which was by 3.3% more than in the same period of the previous year. There was year-on-year growth +1.5% (of which noresidents +4.2%) in Karlovarsky Region representing approximately 50% of total overnight stays at spa accommodation establishments.

As for the country of permanent residence, most tourists came from Germany with year-on-year drop by 6.5%. The increase of overnight stays was reported for Russia (+25.4%) and Poland (+12.2%).

Net use of rooms of hotels and similar establishments was 50.5% in Q3 2008. Net use in hotels reached 53.7%; in five-star hotels 61.1% and four-star hotels 62.4%. As for the regions the highest net use of rooms was reported in Karlovarsky Region (64.1%) and in Capital Prague (63.9%); the lowest net use of rooms was in Ustecky Region (33.8%) and Vysocina (35.3%).

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Methodological note:
1) Data on guests at collective tourist accommodation establishments are obtained from the monthly CR1-12 sample survey and the quarterly CR2-04 survey. Data mentioned are sums of the data processed from submitted questionnaires and imputed data on the accommodation establishments that failed to report.

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Contact: Hellerová Alena, phone: (+420) 274052921, E-mail: alena.hellerova@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in collective accommodation establishments
End of data collection: 6 October 2008
End of data processing: 10 October 2008
The data are preliminary; revised data for all quarters of 2008 will be known in February 2009.
Quarterly data since 2000 are available in time series ( /produkty/cru_ts ).
As of 30 April 2008 data for 2007 were revised.