After hearing of Prague’s narrow lanes, tiny squares and ornate architecture, Lisa Gelfond knew she wanted to visit-and the potential of political turmoil stemming from Czechoslovakia’s partition was not going to stop her.
“I specifically wanted to see Prague, and the split of Czechoslovakia didn’t affect that decision,” Gelfond, a toy sales representative from Providence, R.I., said as she sipped a beer at a cafe on the city’s Old Town Square. “Prague has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and I wanted to see it.”
Despite fears to the contrary, the tourist boom that started when Czechoslovakia cast off communist rule has turned into a tourist explosion for the new Czech Republic.
Every year since 1989, millions of tourists have come to walk the narrow streets of Prague’s Old Town, to climb the ancient steps to the Prague Castle and to cross the Charles Bridge, the 14th Century stone bridge that spans the Vltava River.
In the first five months of 1993, visits to the country by foreigners are up 16 percent over last year, and revenue from tourism have shot up by 68 percent. Through April of this year, tourism had brought in some $335 million, and now accounts for 14 percent of the Czech Republic’s foreign exchange earnings.
“Since 1989, tourism here has skyrocketed,” said Jindrich Danda, deputy director of the Czech Tourism Authority. “We thought last year was a record year, but it just keeps going up.”
While the physical beauty of Prague matches or exceeds that of any other European capital, the city also had the special attraction of being the home of a long humanist tradition, which seemed to indicate that Czechs and Slovaks would quickly complete a relatively gentle transformation from communism to capitalism. Czechoslovakia was, after all, the country that gave the world the “Velvet Revolution,” “socialism with a human face” and the playwright-president Vaclav Havel. And Prague was its capital.
Much of that attraction, however, seemed to disappear overnight on Jan. 1 of this year when Czechoslovakia split into separate Czech and Slovak republics. The gentle dream of a humane transfer of power got lost in the harsh words Czechs and Slovaks had for each other. While Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Divorce” was as trouble-free as the Velvet Revolution, it was not nearly as romantic.
Some tourism officials were concerned that Prague’s special magic would begin to wear off, and in the eyes of visitors the city would become just another European capital-of a smaller, less-important country, at that.
Those concerns, however, turn out to have been for naught.
“From the first five months, the strongest increases (in the number of visitors) were in January and February,” Danda said. “The figures show that there’s been no drop in tourism because of the split.”
Slovakia, on the other hand, has not fared nearly as well. Visits to the country have fallen somewhat from last year’s levels, which were already far below visits to the Czech lands, said Rodan Oravec, deputy director of marketing in the tourism section of Slovakia’s Economy Ministry. Before the split, some 85 percent of Czechoslovakia’s tourists visited only the Czech lands. Now, with Slovakia a separate country, fewer still make the trip.
“In these first months of this year there are fewer tourists than in years before,” Oravec said. “After the revolution, a lot of people came from neighboring countries-from Austria, Hungary and Germany-to see the changes. But these people are not coming anymore.”
Slovakia’s troubles are further complicated by the fact that for Czechs, a trip to Slovakia’s mountains-a common destination before the split-is now a trip abroad, so fewer Czechs are visiting. And for foreign tourists, Bratislava and the rest of Slovakia are simply no match for Prague.
Prague, meanwhile, is trying to cope with the problems of too many tourists, not too few. While the situation has improved considerably in the last few years-Prague has doubled the number of beds available for visitors since 1989-the city can at times feel as if it is overrun by tourists.
From his office overlooking Prague’s Old Town Square-the epicenter of the city’s tourism-Danda sees the hordes of visitors who crowd the city daily. A mere four years ago, it was not uncommon to be one of just a handful of people on the broad plaza. Now, a half-dozen cafes have set up tables in the square, and more than 100,000 people stream through daily.
Danda’s agency has started a campaign to convince visitors that there is more to the Czech Republic than Prague, and that there is more to Prague than just a handful of sites in the center of the city. That, however, may be difficult; Last year, 75 percent of visitors to the republic spent at least one day in the capital.
“We don’t want people to come here like cattle to a meat-packing plant,” Danda said. “What we want is for the tourists to come not only to Prague, but to go to the rest of the country as well. . . . And we want the city to come up with a plan to get people to visit other sites in Prague, not just the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle.”
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According to the consulate of the Czech Republic in Washington, D.C., efforts are underway throughout Prague to provide enhanced access for the disabled. Newer buildings generally are wheelchair-accessible. Olga Havel, wife of the president of the Czech Republic, heads a committee overseeing such improvements, which have been slower in coming to outlying areas of the country. Access in Slovakia lags somewhat behind that in Czech Republic.
RESERVATIONS VITAL IN PRAGUE
Getting there: Czechoslovak Airlines flies non-stop twice weekly to Prague from Chicago and New York. Delta Air Lines has connecting flights twice a week via Frankfurt, and most major European airlines offer connecting service via their respective hubs. CSA offers daily flights from Prague to Bratislava and the High Tatras.
Climate: July and September are probably the best months to visit the Czech and Slovak republics. August can be very hot and is the most crowded. Winters can be bitterly cold, although Prague is perhaps at its most beautiful (and uncrowded) under freshly fallen snow, most likely in January and February. Expect some rain in any season.
Entry requirements: Citizens of the United States and most European countries are given free 30-day tourist visas at any border crossing or airport.
Accommodations: It is best to arrive in Prague with some sort of accommodation arranged, as the summers are very crowded and rooms can be hard to find. In most other towns and cities it’s probably OK to arrive without a reservation. In Prague, budget $120-$300 for a double room at four- and five-star hotels. Outside the capital, prices are lower. A double room in a tourist class hotel can cost as little as $20 per night, although reserving one from abroad is difficult.
To compensate for the shortage of hotel space, dozens of agencies offer rooms in private houses and apartments. These can range from a basic room where guests share the bathroom with the apartment’s owner, to entire luxury apartments in the heart of the city. A few agencies: Prague Suites, 011-42-2-267-770; AVE Ltd., 011-42-2-236-2560 or 011-42-2-236-3075; and Top Tour, 011-42-2-229-6526 or 011-42-2-232-1077 (fax, 011-42-2-232-0860). Cedok, the former state-run monopoly travel agency, can also make room reservations throughout both republics at its New York office, 212-689-9720.
Changing money: The Czech and Slovak republics have lifted most restrictions on currency, although a small black market still exists. Do not, however, change with any of the dozens of men who will approach you while walking anywhere in the center of Prague; unlike in former times, the black market rate these days is at best about 2 percent higher than the bank rate. The black market currency traders are for the most part hustlers who may give unsuspecting tourists worthless old Czechoslovak crowns or Russian rubles, near-worthless Polish zlotys, or in some other way pull a scam. Dozens of currency exchanges have popped in the last two years, although they often charge exorbitant commissions. It is best to change at state banks, especially the landmark Zivnostenska Bank at Na Prikope 20 in Prague. Besides being one of the city’s most beautiful buildings and worth a visit in its own right, Zivnostenska gives cash advances in six currencies to Visa card holders. It will exchange cash for a 1 percent commission. Holders of American Express, Visa and MasterCard, and Cirrus or Plus System network cash cards can get money from bank machines. In Bratislava try any branch of the Vseobecna Uverova Banka.
