Tourism - 4. quarter of 2008

In Q4 2008, the number of overnight stays at collective accommodation establishments decreased by 8.2% year-on-year, of which residents by 9.2% and nonresidents by 7.5%. The decrease in number of guest from abroad was higher than domestic guests (- 6.3% and -4.2%, respectively). The number of overnight stays went down by 3.8% and number of guests by 0.9% in the whole year 2008.
Graph 1
The number of overnight stays totalled 7.2 million in Q4 2008; this was by 8.2% less than in the same period of the previous year. The number of overnight stays of residents went down by 9.2% and nonresidents by 7.5%. From particular categories of establishments the growth was reported by four-star and three-star hotels only (by 12.0% and 2.1%, respectively). Other categories reported sharp drop (the highest boarding houses by 31.1%). Apart from Karlovarsky Region, where the number of overnight stays increased by 0.6% due to higher number of overnight stays of nonresidents in spa establishments, there was a decrease in other regions, the highest in Vysocina (by 21.8%) and Pardubicky Region (by 18.5%). The average length of overnight stays was 2.8 nights which was 0.1 less than in the same period of the previous year.

In Q4 2008, a total of 2.6 million guests was recorded at surveyed establishments; this was 5.4% down on Q4 2007. Foreign guests arrived 1.4 million (by 6.3% less) and domestic guests 1.2 million (by 4.2% less). The highest number of guests (934 thousand, +4.0%) was at three-star hotels. Four-star hotels reported the growth in number of guests by 8.6%. The rest of the categories showed downfall, of which boarding houses the highest (by 30.7%). The decrease in number of guests reported all regions, the highest Pardubicky (by 17.9%) and Zlinsky (by 14.1%).

The number of foreign guests from traditional destinations went down yea-on-year in Q4 2008, the highest decrease was from United Kingdom (by 22.6%); on the contrary there was an increase of guests from Poland (by 17.7%), Russia (by 16.4%) and France (by 2.1%).

Although at spa accommodation establishments there were more guests by 1.8% (of which nonresidents by 5.8% more), the number of overnight stays decreased by 7.3% (foreign guest increased by 3.3%).

Net use of rooms of hotels and similar establishments was 38.9% in Q4 2008 (i.e. by 1.3 p.p. less than in the same period of the previous year). Despite of the drop in five-star hotels by 9.8 p.p., they reported the highest use of room (51.0%).
In the year 2008 tourism recorded a lower interest in accommodation at collective accommodation establishments. The number of overnight stays dropped by 3.8%. The growth was reported by four and tree-stars hotels only (by 17.6% and 5.2%, respectively). There was a substantial plunge in number of overnight stays at campsites (by 13.6%), boarding houses (by 14.0%) and holiday dwellings and hostels for tourists (by 12.1%). For the two latter mentioned categories this was the worst result since the year 2000, in case of campsites only the flooding year 2002 was worse. The average length of overnight stays at collective accommodation establishments was 3.1 nights which was 0.1 less than in the year 2007. The number of guests went down more slightly than the number of overnight stays, only by 0.9%.

The total decrease was affected more by residents, both in number of overnight stays (by -4.7%) and in number of guests (by -1.5%). The number of overnight stays by nonresidents dropped by 3.0% only, the number of guest by 0.4%.

As for regions, the number of overnight stays of guest went up in Karlovarsky Region only (by 1.6%) and at the same level compared with the year 2007 remained Prague. Other regions reported a decrease. The number of guests increased in Prague (by 2.5%) and in Jihomoravsky Region (by 0.5%). The total number of guest accommodated at collective accommodation establishments in 2008 included 51.8% of foreign guests. The most visited were Prague (4.6 million guests), in which 88.3% were nonresidents.

Net use of rooms of hotels and similar establishments was by 0.1 p.p. lower in 2008 than in 2007 and reached 42.7%.

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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. Net use of room is the number of overnight stays in a particular period divided by the number of room-days (stated as a percentage).

Text not edited for language.

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: 7 January 2009
End of data processing: 6 February 2009
The data are preliminary; final data for all quarters of 2008 will be known in April 2009.
Quarterly data since 2000 are available in time series ( /produkty/cru_ts ).