2nd quarter 2009 - the lowest number of overnight stays within the same season since the year 2000

In spite of the fact that, in contradiction to the year 2008, the 2^nd quarter of this year has been endowed with the Easter holiday, the falling numbers of the guests and their overnight stays have continued. The number of overnight stays has attained 8.8 million, which has been the least of all the second quarters since the year 2000, and it has shrunk overall by 8.6 % on a year-to-year basis, more specifically by 10.1 % as far as the foreign visitors are concerned and by 6.9 % as concerns the local ones. The overall usage of hotels and boarding houses has weakened by 3.3 percentage points, reaching a value of 41.1 %.

The number of overnight stays made by the guests in the 2^nd quarter represented 8.8 million, which was 8.6 % down on the same period of the previous year. With the number of overnight stays of 4.6 million, the non-residents segment has recorded a more expressive downfall (by 10.1 %) than the residents segment (by 6.9 %). A mild growth (by 1.3 %) has been observed only in the four-star hotels segment. The falling tendency of the monitored indicators within the other categories of the accommodation facilities during the month of July can be partially attributed to the unfavourable weather (namely in the campsites, where 31.0 % fewer guests have stayed overnight than in the last year). From a regional perspective, the numbers of overnight stays have fallen in all regions, most perceptibly in the Ústí nad Labem (by 20.4 %) and in the South Moravia ones (by 16.9 %).

In the course of the 2^nd quarter, altogether 3.1 million guests have arrived into the mass accommodation facilities, which was by 8.6 % fewer than in the previous year. On the whole 1.7 million non-residents have sought accommodation, i. e. fewer by 8.7 %, and 1.4 million residents, i. e. down by 8.5 %. A lower overall number of guests arrived into all regions, with the fiercest fall being recorded in the South Moravia (by 17.4 %) and Liberec (by 16.3 %) regions. A growth in the number of arrivals made by the local tourists has been recorded only in Prague (by 1.5 %) and in the Karlovy Vary region (by 3.1 %). More foreign guests have arrived only into the tourist region of Šumava (by 0.4 %), while no growth has been reported anywhere at the administrative regions level.

Despite the downfall (number of arrivals by 2.4 %, overnight stays by 5.4 %), the guests from Germany have retained their superiority in both monitored indicators, of the ten most frequently arriving nationalities only the number of guest arrivals from Austria has grown (by 3.1 %). The most significant decrease in the numbers of arrivals and overnight stays has been recorded in the case of Russian tourists (by 23.2 %, or 22.8 % respectively).

In the spa facilities, the number of overnight stays made by guests has reached 1.8 million, which corresponded with a year-on-year fall by 6.2 %. While the number of overnight stays made by non-residents has fallen expressively (by 14.6 %), residents have reported a fall of 0.2 % only. In the Karlovy Vary region, which is the most important one in the light of spa business, the overall fall represented 10.2 %, with non-residents contributing by a 13.6 % drop, whereas residents on the other hand have shown a mild growth (by 0.5 %).

The occupancy of rooms in hotels and boarding houses in the 2^nd quarter has reached 41.1 % (by 3.3 percentage points less than over the same period of the previous year). A fall has been shown by all hotel categories, most perceivably affecting the five-star category (by 11.2 p.p.). The highest occupancy of rooms has been enjoyed by the four-star hotels (51.0 %), which have so overtaken the formerly most successful five-star hotels. In spite of a growth by 1.9 p.p., the boarding houses have still reported the lowest occupancy rates. When comparing the administrative regions, the capacities in Prague have been used most frequently (55.1 %), as well as those in the Karlovy vary region (53.0 %), while the weakest usage has been reported in the Ústí nad Labem (25.6 %) and Vysočina/Highlands (26.8 %) regions. The worst year-to-year downgrade has hit upon the hotels and boarding houses in the South Moravia (by 9.7 p.p.) and Olomouc regions (by 5.3 p.p.).

Methodological note:

1) The data concerning the occupancy rates in the mass accommodation facilities in tourism has been obtained using the monthly selective inquiry CR 1-12 and the quarterly inquiry CR 2-04. The featured data represents a summary of the data processed from the submitted checklists and the statistically estimated data pertaining to those accommodation facilities, from which no completed questionnaires have been received. The rooms usage figure is calculated as a fraction of the number of implemented roomnights (i. e. the number of occupied rooms on the individual days over the monitored period) and a product of the average number of available rooms and the number of operational days. The resulting value is given in percents (i. e. multiplied by 100).

Contact person: Alena Hellerová, tel. 274052921, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Data source: direct inquiry by the ČSÚ in the mass accommodation facilities

Data collection completion date: 23.7.2009

Data processing completion date: 7.8.2009

The data is of a preliminary nature, reviewed data for all quarters of the year 2009 will be available in February 2010.

The data sets pertaining to the individual quarters since the year 2000 are available in time series at:  (http://czso.cz/csu/redakce.nsf/i/cru_cr).

The data pertaining to the year 2008 was reviewed as of 20.3.2009.