Mailbox
This week in Mailbox: New arrival at the Prague Zoo, "Posters of the Velvet Revolution", number of foreign tourists visiting the Czech Republic, Radio Prague's Annual listeners' writing contest. Listeners quoted: Steven Bell, Lili Eylon, Rassem ben Brahim.
Hello and welcome to Mailbox, Radio Prague’s weekly listeners’ letters programme.
Steven Bell from Canada keenly follows Radio Prague’s news about the animal kingdom:
Lili Eylon from Israel responds to a recent current affairs story:
“Some time ago in one of your emailed daily news reports, you mentioned a recently-published book containing pictures of resistance posters against the communist regime. Would you be good enough to give me the title, publishers and cost of the book so I can order it? Thank you very much. Good luck on the elections!”
The book is called "Plakáty sametové revoluce" or "Posters of the Velvet Revolution". The Radio Prague article is available here: www.radio.cz/en/article/122627 A link to the publisher’s e-shop is included in our e-mail reply.
Rassem ben Brahim from Tunisia would like to know:
“How many tourists come to your country?”
According to data released earlier this year by the Czech Republic’s tourism agency CzechTourism, 6,081,244 foreign tourists visited the country last year, an 8.5 percent decline from 2008. The figures looked rather bleak in the first quarter of 2009 when the decline was 17 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, but they gradually picked up until in the last quarter the year-on-year decline was just 3.5. percent. The largest number of tourists came from Germany (almost 1.5 million), followed by the UK, Italy, Poland and Russia with over 300,000 each. This year a slight revival is expected.
And who knows maybe you and your spouse, partner or friend can feature in that list of foreign visitors this year as Radio Prague gives you a unique chance to win a free trip to Prague with its annual listeners’ writing contest. This year its theme is literature. All you need to do is write a few sentences on this subject:
Which Czech writer or literary work do you like best and why?
The person who sends in the best answer, which will be chosen by a specially appointed jury, will win a weeklong stay for two in Prague. There will also be prizes and souvenir items for runners-up.
The best answers will be featured in our programme and published on our website www.radio.cz on the last weekend of June.
Your entries should reach us no later than June 15, 2010 at the following address:
Vinohradská 12 12099 Prague 2
Czech Republic
or via email at: [email protected]
The main prize is being sponsored by PARKHOTEL Praha. Parkhotel Praha offers visitors a blend of comfort and history, quality and modern design, within easy reach of the city centre.
There are no strict rules as to the word count but for inspiration you can take a look at last year's competition results at www.radio.cz/en/article/117663
And as every month you can take part in our little monthly quiz which also has a literary theme.
This month we would like you to tell us the name of the Prague-based author born in 1917 in Slovakia whose book was made into a movie that won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008.
You have until tomorrow, that is May 31, to send us your answers to [email protected] or Radio Prague, 12099 Prague. Those are also the addresses for your letters and reception reports. Thanks for listening today and until next week, take care.
