Can Czechs Rethink the Tourism App Where Others Have Failed?

The few mobile apps launched by destinations in recent years either experienced negligible usage or tended to end up in the trash bin on travelers’ smartphones.

Czech Tourism has taken its new mobile app in a different direction by making it business-to-business focused.

The app, Czech Days, presents users with information about the country via slideshow presentations that don’t require a Wi-Fi connection to view once they’re downloaded onto users’ devices.

Presentations available cover meetings and convention spaces, economic data about the Czech Republic through the prism of different industries such as education, science and technology, and a “7 Reasons to Visit Prague” slideshow depicting the city as a lifestyle brand complete with enticing tastes, aromas and ecology.

There’s also a presentation detailing exhibitors who were present at a Czech Tourism event in Shanghai last week that promoted the destination to a Chinese audience. Such foreign marketing events are becoming more common.

While Czech Days is the organization’s first business-to-business app, it’s not the Czech Tourism’s first foray into creating a mobile app. Czech Tourism already has a slew of apps for both iPhone and Android such as Prague Trips by Public Transport, Czech Spa Resorts, and ‘Czech Money, with the latter offering detailed pictures and descriptions of all valid versions of Czech banknotes and coins together with a backlight function and viewing under UV light.

The launch of the Czech Days app, which includes travel and tourism investment data for the country, follows the release of a World Travel & Tourism Council report indicating the Czech Republic is at “medium risk” for not being able to attract enough investment in its travel and tourism sector to keep up with increased visitor arrivals expected during the next 10 years.

Since this is one of the first examples of a business-focused destination app, it’s too soon to say how useful it will prove to the country’s tourism efforts. But it seem worthwhile to design an app to get some concrete and practical information into the hands of potential partners.