Prague slowly welcomes tourists again amid travel restrictions

(23 Aug 2021) LEAD IN:
Thanks to the EU COVID-19 passport, tourism within member states is less restricted since the beginning of the summer.
In the Czech Republic, cobbled streets are seeing more tourists.
But this year, Prague has to count on domestic visitors to make up for lost foreigners, who are still facing heavy travel restrictions.

STORY-LINE:
Is this what a post-pandemic summer looks like?
In the Czech Republic, tourism seems to be back to normal with restaurants and hotels open, no outdoor face mask requirement and lots of people walking in the street.
But for the businesses and workers that cater to tourism, things are anything but back to business as usual.
The most popular streets in the city's historic centre are still packed with tourists, at the top of the hour they still jostle to get a shot of the Astronomical Clock, people still laze in Old Town Square by the hundreds, tour operator touts still work the crowds.
But at the city's world-famous Charles Bridge, there's a sign that things are not quite what they used to be.
In the middle of the day, there's now plenty of space for couples to walk hand in hand down the cobblestones.
During the height of the tourism season before COVID-19, the medieval bridge was teeming.
People are usually shoulder to shoulder just trying to cross it.
And despite appearance, the number of visitors is sharply down --70% down from 2019 to be precise.
That year, the Czech Republic set a new record of nearly 22 million arrivals, according to Czech Tourism.
Director of Czech Tourism Jan Herget explains that these numbers hide a shift in trends between domestic and international tourism.
"We are still under (the) big pressure of Covid. Naturally, we have seen some increases but if we compare it with 2019, the year before Covid, we are (at) 30 percent (of  tourists visits). So, we still lack tourists and to be honest most of the numbers we see now are (because) of the Czech tourists. We are seeing a big increase in the Czech tourists that are staying in the Czech Republic, having their holiday here. But we are mostly missing the long haul tourists; China, Russia, America, Korea, Japan," says Herget.
The numbers speak for themselves.
According to the Czech Tourism office, compared to the first half of 2020, arrivals from Russia were down 95% during the same period this year.
Down 98% from China and South Korea, 96% from Japan and 87% from America.
And while travellers from neighbouring countries are still visiting because they can easily drive to the country, those from Western Europe have been less likely than before to hop on a plane for a weekend trip according Czech Tourism.
As a result, many in the tourism industry have or are about to lose their jobs due to still very low numbers of tourists.
Among them is Eva Trkalova, a tour guide whose 15 years in the business has come to a screeching halt since Covid-19.
She's only lead two tours in the last 18 months.
"It was depressing, it was hard to get over with. But, you know, we always have a hope that things will change because that's what happens in this world, everything changes all the time. So, I know (that) this situation will not last forever. So that kind of hope I had and I was living with," says Trkalova.
She is now looking for part-time work outside of the tourism industry until it makes a full comeback.
On that day she did have some guests, maybe her last for a while: two repeat clients from America, mother and daughter Diane and Karin Alexanderson from Pennsylvania.

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