How Can The Czech Republic Tourism-oriented Economy Attract The Emerging Solvent Chinese Tourist Class?

China, with a population of over one billion, has the largest traveling potential in the world. The World Tourism Organization predicts that in 2020 there will be 100 million Chinese travelling abroad for holidays. The aim of this study is to determine strategies to increase the number of Chinese tourist visits to the Czech Republic. The task for the Czech Republic is to join the list of countries that Chinese first-time-travelers want to visit in Europe. Currently, the Chinese tend to choose more famous destinations such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany or Spain for their first trip to Europe. The Czech Republic is a Central European country that receives a substantial income from tourism, making up around 3%of its GDP. The Czech Republic is relatively unknown in China due to the confusion after the splitting of Czechoslovakia to two the independent states Czech Republic and Slovakia. Today, Czech is gaining popularity among the Chinese thanks to the increasing sales of Skoda cars. The first part of the thesis is an introduction to the main tourist attractions of the Czech Republic, which has the highest concentration of UNESCO monuments in the world. The second part describes the Chinese tourist in detail, including their expectations, group travel phenomena, government regulation of their travel and favorite activities such as shopping. A survey was conducted to show the newest trends in perception of the Czech Republic by the Chinese. Specifically, the survey focused on Chinese people with a university education and students, as these groups form the economically strong group which can afford to travel oversees. One surprising result of the survey contradicts the general opinion that Chinese people prefer to travel in groups. Nation branding theory was applied in this thesis, using the European Union (EU) as a master brand of Czech, and transferring the image of high quality services and safety to Czech. Since the accession of the EU and the granting of the Approved Destination Status in 2004, there has been a tendency of a two-digit growth in the number of visitors from China to Czech. Furthermore, the Nation Branding Index and the City Branding Index were used to evaluate the perception of the Chinese people towards the Czech Republic and Prague respectively. An interview with a Czech tour guide specializing in the Chinese tourist was carried out by the author, showing an insider point of view. The thesis gives recommendations and a proposal for the strategic development of Czech tourism in order to attract more Chinese tourists to the Czech Republic in the near future.