Today’s younger generation of Czechs have little relationship toward Slovakia, seeing Slovak as a less understandable language to Czech, and thus they prefer to visit countries other than Slovakia. This was announced at a press conference on Tuesday by the Bratislava Tourist Board (BTB) chair František Stano.
“If we don't begin to reach out to this new generation somehow, then the Czech market - the most important to us in terms of sheer numbers - will gradually see steep declines”, warned Stano. In 2013, Bratislava was visited by 87,348 Czech tourists, which amounts to a year-on-year rise of almost 3.7 percent. The number of overnight stays, however, dropped by 3.85 percent to 136,104. Hence, even though Czech tourists still come to visit Bratislava, their visits are becoming shorter, said Stano. The Bratislava Tourist Board now faces the challenge of coming up with a new form of communication with the young Czech generation, presenting Bratislava as a former coronation city with a rich history, a place offering a number of adrenaline activities as well as night clubs. “We'd like to unify the club scene and offer it as a product of Bratislava at night. We're in talks with 30 clubs closest to the city centre which feature rich programmes and international performers”, said Stano. Another attraction is the close proximity of woods and hills to the city centre, a fact that BTB uses to target a new category of tourists under the motto ‘one foot in the city and the other in nature’. “We'd like to merge the interest in being in nature with having the city close at hand and, thus, being able to spend the night time in a location different than a tent. That's another challenge for us in the future”, said Stano.
