CzechTourism, the state agency charged with promoting inbound travel, revealed on Easter Monday that it is refocusing its successful ‘Discover Central Europe’ digital-influencer strategy from mainland China to Japan. The announcement comes after a year-long pilot in which four Chinese food-and-travel creators live-streamed a culinary rail journey on České dráhy’s InterCity services between Prague, Brno and Ostrava. According to agency head František Reismüller, the campaign delivered “millions of impressions” across Weibo and Trip.com and helped lift Chinese arrivals to 207 000 in 2025 – a 20 % rebound on the previous year. While tourism marketers celebrate the numbers, mobility professionals note the bottlenecks that remain for long-haul visitors. Chinese travellers still rely on a single twice-weekly Hainan Airlines flight between Beijing and Prague, and Czech consulates in Shanghai and Chengdu face month-long Schengen-visa appointment backlogs. Reismüller admits that visa facilitation will be critical in the next phase and says the agency is coordinating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to allocate extra temporary staff during this summer’s peak. The new initiative – ‘Echoes of the Masters: Classical Music Journey through Central Europe’ – will invite leading Japanese lifestyle influencers to document rail and tram travel to Czech UNESCO sites and music festivals before hosting a B2B workshop in Tokyo. An EU matching grant is expected to cover half of the €160 000 budget, with the remainder split among the Visegrád Four tourism boards. For corporate mobility teams, Japan is an attractive source market: visitors typically stay longer than seven nights and often combine leisure with short business meetings thanks to visa-free Schengen entry for up to 90 days. However, geopolitical risk continues to stalk flight connectivity. Ongoing conflict around the Strait of Hormuz has forced several Gulf carriers to trim Prague frequencies, complicating one-stop itineraries from Osaka or Fukuoka. CzechTourism says it is prepared to defer influencer travel to December if necessary – turning the narrative towards Advent markets and setting up a spring-2027 booking wave instead. For Czech hoteliers and ground-transport operators, the key takeaway is diversification. By alternating focus between China and Japan, the agency hopes to smooth demand shocks and support year-round seat capacity at Václav Havel Airport. HR and relocation managers should watch for short-notice charter slots and visa-processing surges, adjusting assignment lead-times accordingly.
Source: e15.cz
