Prague CVB celebrates 15 years of service and stimulating a €3bn contribution to public budgets

Prague Convention Bureau is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its foundation. During that time the bureau has won 846 congresses and conferences for the city, bringing in 410,000 delegates who generated nearly one million room nights. This has equated to spending of almost two billion crowns (€80m) on accommodation alone. The total contribution to public budgets is put at closer to €3bn. The capital of the Czech Republic ranks high on the lists of popular meetings destinations in the world and the Prague Convention Bureau’s membership base today includes 60 entities such as hotels, professional event organisers, congress centres, restaurants and social venues, and providers of related services. The Prague Convention Bureau’s Ambassador Programme has been key to winning many of the international conferences for the city and has been running for 13 years. “Despite the last three very difficult years, we managed to acquire important international events to Prague. Thanks to them, local experts across various areas have gained invaluable know-how, which they would only acquire in other, complicated and costly ways,” said Roman Muška, director of the Prague Convention Bureau, who pointed out that over the past 15 years the City of Prague had provided support to approximately 150 major international meetings. “The funds invested by the city in the form of grants are returned to the destination many times over in the form of spending by individual congress delegates. Moreover, these expenses are several times higher than those made by average leisure tourists,” Muška noted. The PCB is moreover, the only organisation in the capital city collecting comprehensive data mapping the meetings industry in the destination. “We monitor not only the number of events and delegates, but also the proportion of local and international events, the type and focus of the event, or source markets,” Muška added. Thanks to the data collection, a new medium-term strategy for the future development of meetings Prague could be presented last year. The bureau has also helped organisers of international conferences take advantage of free Prague public transportation for delegates.