Affected by the effects of the war in Ukraine, the Czech spa towns, listed as world heritage sites, have seen the number of foreign visitors, including the wealthy Russians, drop sharply, and are looking for a new clientele.
After anti-pandemic measures temporarily closed spa facilities, the Czech towns of Karlovy Vary, Marianske Lazne and Frantiskovy Lazne saw a glimmer of hope when Unesco inscribed them in 2021 on the World Heritage List. But their joy was short-lived, as Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and the Czech Republic, an EU member of 10.8 million people, is applying EU sanctions against that country.
If between 2019 and 2022, the total number of customers fell from 900,000 to 840,000, the number of foreign visitors fell from 400,000 to less than 300,000. The share of Russian customers – the biggest spenders – has fallen from 61,000 to just a few thousand. The number of Germans fell by around 10%. A big shortfall for the Czech water stations. “The average Czech tourist spends around 700 crowns ($32) a day. Russian-speaking customers spend more than 3,500 crowns a day,” said Jan Herget, director of the state agency CzechTourism.
German visitors, accounting for about a quarter of the total number, spend around 2,000 crowns a day, he said. “The overall figures are not that different, but financially it’s a fall,” adds Mr. Herget. “Our spa towns have lost 80% of their clientele overnight,” confirms Andrea Pfeffer Ferklova, mayor of Karlovy Vary, where rich Russians have been used in recent decades to buy apartments, houses and even hotels.
Russian tourists also tended to stay for several weeks, while Czechs prefer weekend stays. “We are seeing a trend of moving from cure stays to wellness and short-term stays,” Ms Pfeffer Ferklova said.
For Eduard Blaha, head of the Czech Spa Association, it was a mistake to focus on Russian customers. “We need to pamper local customers and provide them with all options, from treatment to tourism and wellness,” he said. CzechTourism also plans to attract customers from the Middle East and countries of the former USSR such as Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan. “We have to compensate for the drop in the number of Russian customers, because it is obvious that they will not come back,” Mr. Herget said.
Spa towns also face a shortage of staff, which is difficult to recruit with a Czech unemployment rate of around 3.5% over the past two years. Another problem is inflation, which is only slowly declining from a record high of 18% in September last year, prompting Czechs to reconsider their spending.
Local resorts could also treat patients suffering from the effects of Covid-19 from European countries without thermal waters, said Martin Plachy, vice-president of the Czech Association of Spa Resorts.
According to Ms Pfeffer Ferklova, spa towns elsewhere in Europe are also affected by the drop in attendance. “I was in Baden-Baden (in Germany) last week, and they have exactly the same problems with the influx of customers as Karlovy Vary,” she said. To cope with the drop in attendance, Czech cities are planning joint promotion with other European spas listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. “We would like to use Unesco for a joint campaign, for example in the United States,” said Mr Herget.
