AS city-break bookings for Prague continue to flood in, agents can top up their earnings by selling clients pre-bookable excursions such as city tours.
Czech Republic specialist Cedok Travel and Fregata Travel both offer standard city tours and themed excursions, commissionable at 10%. Cedok also sells a wide range of tours from Prague to key towns and historic sites.
For first-time visitors to Prague, the city tour should be a fairly easy sell at £14 with Cedok and £15 with Fregata. The more energetic can take a walking tour, priced at £8 and £9 respectively.
Fregata also brochures a Prague Residences tour for £18. It visits the Bertramka Villa that was occupied by Mozart, Strahov Monastery with its 800-year-old library and the 17th-century Troja Summer Palace.
The operator’s Brewery Tour, which costs £11, visits the Novometsky Brewery, one of a handful of small operations that is still flourishing in Prague, while a tour of Prague’s Jewish quarter can be experienced for £18.
Fregata product manager Jeremy Anderson said: “Many older clients – those aged 65-plus – like to pre-book excursions and know exactly what they will be doing when they reach Prague.
“Those in the 45-65 age range generally prefer to decide what they are going to do when they get there, although the Brewery tour and Prague Residences tour are popular with all ages.”
Cedok recommends its 2hr-long Getting Acquainted tour which costs £8 for clients with little time to spare, or the 4hr road and river Prague by Night tour, which throws in dinner for £28.
Two other popular Vltava river cruises bookable through Cedok offer a different perspective of the city – with lunch for £15 or just with afternoon tea for £10.
Cedok managing director Marketa Athanasiadova said:”Many first-time visitors book just the Grand City tour. Second and third-timers , however, will book all the other tours that we offer.
“Short-break visitors won’t devote a whole day to an excursion but those staying for a longer time, five days or more, will want to book a tour that takes them out of Prague,” she added.
Cedok and Fregata will book tickets for cultural events at the city’s big three venues – the State Opera House, National Theatre and Estates Theatre.
Cedok’s programme of nine half and full-day tours that venture outside Prague include the historic castles of Konopiste and Karlstejn, Karlovy Vary spa resort and the UNESCO-listed towns of Kutna Hora and Cesky Krumlov.