Hotel stays in Czech Republic down in Q1 by 8.7 percent

The number of overnight stays at Czech hotels fell in the first quarter of this year by 8.7 percent to 7.3 million, the Czech Statistical Office said on Monday. The number of guests checking into Czech hotels and pensions was down by 8.4 percent to 2.3 million in the first three months of 2009. According to the Statistical Office, the drop in visitor numbers can be partially explained by the fact that Easter fell late this year, and so tourist numbers for the Easter period will become clear when data for the second quarter is released later this year. In fact, the number of Czechs staying at hotels and pensions in this country was up by around one percent in the first quarter of this year. The Statistical Office suggested that this rise in domestic tourism could have been caused by the good skiing conditions that Czechs enjoyed at the start of the year.