Attendance at Prague tourist attractions still below pre-Covid figures

The number of visitors to several Prague heritage sites and tourist attractions still has not reached pre-Covid levels. Only Prague Zoo and the Botanical Gardens have bounced back.

The lower attendance is mainly caused by the lack of foreign tourists, according to representatives of the sites.

The Old Town Hall was visited by 40 percent fewer people this year than in the same period in 2019. For Prague Castle, visitor numbers this July were about half of what they were three years ago in July. The Petřín Tower and the Powder Tower also experienced lower visitations, based on the number of tickets sold.

While people from European countries and the U.S. are coming back after they stopped arriving in Prague due to the coronavirus restrictions, there is still a big lack of tourists from Southeast Asia and Russia, Klára Malá, Prague City Tourism (PCT) spokeswoman Klára Malá told the Czech New Agency (ČTK).

Asians are not coming to Czechia due to ongoing Covid restrictions in their home countries and the Russians do not travel due to the war in Ukraine, she added.

PCT operates the Petřín Tower, Old Town Hall, the towers on Charles Bridge, the New Mill Water Tower, and other sights.

“The attendance of all eight objects managed by Prague City Tourism is still far from reaching the same values as before the Covid pandemic, but during this year we are seeing a gradual increase in the number of their visitors,” PCT's Kamila Bakotová said.

The most popular PCT sight is now the Petřín Tower, visited by 69,520 people in July, while 37,205 people visited the Old Town Hall, twice as many as in July last year. However, before the coronavirus pandemic, more than 60,000 went to this sight in July.

A total of 131,657 people bought entrance tickets to the interiors at Prague Castle in July, which means an increase year-on-year, as in July 2021, 54,373 people visited Prague Castle, administration spokesman Jan Pastor said. The attendance is still much lower than before the pandemic when 250,560 visited in July 2019.

The Prague Zoo and Botanical Gardens attracted a high number of visitors this year. “So far, we consider this year's attendance to be successful. The Botanical Garden is more visible, we are trying to popularize our activities more,” Botanical Garden director Bohumil Černý said.

According to spokeswoman Michaela Bičíková, more people have visited the grounds of the Prague Botanical Garden than in the same period in recent years, including 2019. So far this year, the most people visited the garden in May, when the traditional butterfly exhibition was held. Almost 62,000 people came.

The zoo, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Czech Republic, welcomed 856,256 visitors who bought a ticket in the first seven months of this year, which was a similar figure as in the last pre-Covid year of 2019, Filip Mašek, from its press section, said.