Visitors from the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries are not reluctant to spend on travel and like to use the services of travel agents to plan their vacations. They pay more and more attention to safety of the destination. Most often, they go abroad for entertainment, sightseeing and luxury shopping, at the same time there is a growing interest in learning about nature and active tourism. Travelling for wellness or to places known from films and books is also gaining in popularity. This and much more was said at the final online export workshop of the Czech Tourism Authority - CzechTourism of the last year.
Mostly, residents of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman travel abroad for a vacation. Less often, they travel because of business trips or a medical treatment. People from these destinations travel mainly during summer tourist season, i.e. from June to September. They choose a place based on recommendations of their family and friends, or they find inspiration on social networks. The majority of visitors (63%) from the Middle East travel with their family members, another significant part represents solo travellers and millennials. Those are more and more interested in sustainable ways of tourism. Before travelling, they are also interested in whether there is an easy access to halal food (religiously unblemished and permitted) or to prayer rooms and mosques in the place of stay.
"Before covid, almost 30,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia came to Czechia. Now, after covid, we register only 16,000 of them, but it’s still a beyond good expectations result, considering the circumstances. The situation is similar for guests from the Emirates, of whom also around 30,000 came to us in 2019, and since 2020 the numbers have dropped significantly due to covid. Tourists from the Middle East are willing to spend huge sums on their holidays and thus can be one of the important markets for Czech entrepreneurs," says Director of the Czech Tourism Authority - CzechTourism Jan Herget and adds: "Direct flights from Dubai and Doha to Prague have been in operation for a long time. Over the summer, in cooperation with Prague Airport, we managed to open additional direct lines from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. If we add air connections with Israel, the Middle East belongs to one of the most accessible destinations."
Israelis represent a significant segment of Middle Eastern tourists. They are credit-worthy guests who want to travel and stay comfortably, spending up to $2,000 per person per stay. More than half of Israelis travel abroad at least once a year, they spend an average of 4 nights in the destination and usually travel in order to relax. However, family vacations with children they plan longer, in the range of 7-14 days and go especially to Europe. They like to combine urban tourism with nature tourist destinations or adventure trips. They are interested in skiing, wellness stays or trips to cultural events.
Export workshops target specifics of those markets where CzechTourism has foreign representation (FR). It is the directors of FR who lead the seminars. They are held regularly throughout the year, last year a total of eight work meetings took place. "Last year's series of export workshops started with a meeting of the Polish and Slovak markets, followed by Benelux and Scandinavia. Then Italy with France and Spain together with Latin America were introduced. These were followed by Germany with Austria, Korea, Japan and China. The penultimate meeting focused on the United States and the United Kingdom, and the series ended up with the source market of the Middle East," says František Reismüller, Director of the Marketing and Foreign Representations Department of the Czech Tourism Authority - CzechTourism.
More information about events and affairs concerning the new markets is available here. CzechTourism plans to do export workshops this year as well, details including applications will be available on the website www.czechtourism.cz and its social networks.
"Before covid, almost 30,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia came to Czechia. Now, after covid, we register only 16,000 of them, but it’s still a beyond good expectations result, considering the circumstances. The situation is similar for guests from the Emirates, of whom also around 30,000 came to us in 2019, and since 2020 the numbers have dropped significantly due to covid. Tourists from the Middle East are willing to spend huge sums on their holidays and thus can be one of the important markets for Czech entrepreneurs," says Director of the Czech Tourism Authority - CzechTourism Jan Herget and adds: "Direct flights from Dubai and Doha to Prague have been in operation for a long time. Over the summer, in cooperation with Prague Airport, we managed to open additional direct lines from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. If we add air connections with Israel, the Middle East belongs to one of the most accessible destinations."
Israelis represent a significant segment of Middle Eastern tourists. They are credit-worthy guests who want to travel and stay comfortably, spending up to $2,000 per person per stay. More than half of Israelis travel abroad at least once a year, they spend an average of 4 nights in the destination and usually travel in order to relax. However, family vacations with children they plan longer, in the range of 7-14 days and go especially to Europe. They like to combine urban tourism with nature tourist destinations or adventure trips. They are interested in skiing, wellness stays or trips to cultural events.
Export workshops target specifics of those markets where CzechTourism has foreign representation (FR). It is the directors of FR who lead the seminars. They are held regularly throughout the year, last year a total of eight work meetings took place. "Last year's series of export workshops started with a meeting of the Polish and Slovak markets, followed by Benelux and Scandinavia. Then Italy with France and Spain together with Latin America were introduced. These were followed by Germany with Austria, Korea, Japan and China. The penultimate meeting focused on the United States and the United Kingdom, and the series ended up with the source market of the Middle East," says František Reismüller, Director of the Marketing and Foreign Representations Department of the Czech Tourism Authority - CzechTourism.
More information about events and affairs concerning the new markets is available here. CzechTourism plans to do export workshops this year as well, details including applications will be available on the website www.czechtourism.cz and its social networks.