HN: Dozens CzechTourism offices to close

Prague, Feb 21 (CTK) - The Regional Development Ministry is planning to close tens of CzechTourism offices due to the bad image of the Czech Republic abroad, financial paper Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes yesterday.

Local Development Minister Kamil Jankovsky is preparing the rules with which to select the offices in question, HN writes.

Those in Russia and Japan are to remain, while that in India is likely to be closed, it adds.

The operation of the 24 offices in 22 countries costs some 80 million crowns annually, HN writes.

"All the offices have contracts till the end of the year," Jankovsky told the paper.

It will be decisive how the offices represent the Czech Republic in local papers and what potential the respective country has, HN writes.

"Japan is a remote destination and the representation will stay there. But I personally consider the representation in India questionable," Jankovsky said.

The reason is not that the government would like to cut the costs. The government wants to keep the volume of the money to be spent on CzechTourism, but it is to be redistributed it among a smaller number of offices, HN writes.

For CzechTourism, it will not be the first wave of closures. Last year, its branch in Greece wound up and this June Hungary will follow, it adds.

"One of the objectives of the reduction of foreign representations is that we would like to spend twice as much on marketing as on operational costs," CzechTourism spokeswoman Alice Dvorakova said.

Besides, regional authorities spend tens of million crowns annually. However, their ideas are often disputable, HN writes.

This is exemplified by the commercials featuring Prague presented by the Prague City Hall on CNN. Moreover, Prague spent 23 million crowns on direct publicity of tourism, it adds.

The sum is comparable with the money spent by other regions. The Olomouc Region alone spent 25 million and the Moravian-Silesian Region 20 million crowns, HN writes.

The millions of crowns spent by the regional and state authorities are often poorly used, it adds.

A survey conducted by the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University has revealed that the Czech Republic is being publicised in a chaotic and disunited way, HN writes.

In cooperation with companies and state authorities, the students that carried out the survey found out that 75 percent of tourists coming to the Czech Republic did not see any publicity of the country before their arrival, it adds.

Most of them associate the Czech Republic with beer and they are of the view that the country is mostly comparable with Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, HN writes.

"Besides, the students have found out that the current approach to the creation of the Czech trademark lacks unity, the trademark is fragmented and communication activities lack an integrated strategy," researcher Zuzana Leskova told the paper.

In March, Jankovsky wants to unveil a tourism bill that is to unify the publicity, HN writes.

It is to set down the roles of regional, local and state authorities, HN writes.

"The regions should realise that it makes no sense to send tens of brochures abroad, but that a united strategy must be outlined," Jankovsky told the paper.

The survey suggests that the government should be inspired by Sweden. The Nordic country "presents" itself in a unified form and the world also knows its trademarks such as Volvo and IKEA, HN writes.

On the other hand, foreigners do not associate old Czech firms such as the Jawa motorcycle maker and Zetor tractor maker with the Czech Republic, it adds.

($1=18.770 crowns)