12 February 2026, Prague – Prague City Tourism and the Czech Tourism Agency – CzechTourism jointly awarded a tender for the supply of analytical data to Mastercard. The aim of the public tender is to ensure more strategic management of tourism in Prague and throughout the Czech Republic. The data will serve as a tool for more accurate monitoring of visitor trends in real time, more effective regulation of tourist flows, better planning of destination development, and better quality prediction of future tourism developments in individual regions. Data as the basis for smarter tourism management Cooperation between Prague City Tourism and CzechTourism on the use of advanced analytical data represents an extraordinary step towards data-driven tourism in the Czech context. For the first time in history, a comprehensive tool is being created that connects aggregated and anonymised payment, airline, and visitor movement and behaviour data, and allows tourism to be monitored not only retrospectively, but also in real time and with a view to the future. Thanks to this, both organisations will be better able to plan the development of destinations, target marketing activities, and at the same time respond to current developments in demand and visitor behaviour. “We are very pleased that the Capital City of Prague has joined forces with the Czech Tourism Agency – CzechTourism and gained access to such sophisticated data through an open tender. This information will allow us to develop tourism in the city even more effectively, in line with the strategy of sustainable and culturally oriented tourism. We believe that by taking this step we will further contribute to more refined and balanced tourism in Prague,” says the Councillor of Prague for Culture and Tourism, Tomáš Slabihoudek. “For CzechTourism, working with such detailed data represents a fundamental shift in how we think about tourism management. It is not just about visitor numbers, but a deeper understanding of who comes to the Czech Republic and when, how long they stay in the Czech Republic, and what they spend most of their money on. Thanks to this, we can better target marketing, increase the economic benefits of tourism, and at the same time support its more even distribution in place and time. In other words, we want to ensure that visitors to the Czech Republic enjoy their stay to the fullest and that tourism has a positive impact on the regions and their inhabitants,” adds František Reismüller, Chief Executive Officer of the Czech Tourism Agency – CzechTourism. “Thanks to the unique joint public tendering for such a demanding contract, we will have access to exceptional data on traveller behaviour, including both behavioural and economic data,” describes Jana Adamcová, Vice-Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Prague City Tourism, adding that, “This tool will allow us to better manage our destination and flexibly respond to changing trends. At the same time, we will be able to benchmark with other metropolises.” According to tourism experts, these data are essential for smart and long-term sustainable tourism management in Prague and the regions. They will provide a better understanding of visitor behaviour, from their nationality and age composition to the activities they are interested in. They also monitor the structure of spending on tourism products and services and the level of guest satisfaction. This will make it possible to respond to the needs of the destinations and the tourists themselves more effectively. The use of these data will also contribute to the fulfilment of the key objectives of the tourism strategy of the capital city, such as precise targeting of creditworthy clientele, easing the flow of tourists outside the heritage preservation zone, the level of customer experience, or more reliable prediction of the number of travellers based on the data on airline capacities, reservations, and payment transactions. The data will also be gradually incorporated into the upcoming My Prague application, which will offer visitors a smart guide and allow the city to better manage tourism in real time. From analysis to predictions and international comparison “High added value is the ability to better predict future developments, e.g., in the area of air connectivity or visitor interest. Thanks to this, we can better plan capacities, develop the tourism services and investments with partners in the regions and at the national level, and contribute to a more even distribution of visitors in time and space. We will thereby obtain specific facts, which will help us strengthen the position of the Czech Republic on the international tourism market in the long term,” adds Petr Janeček, Head of the Institute of Tourism at CzechTourism. Part of the contract with Mastercard is access to the Mastercard Tourism Insights analytical tool, which works with information from ten key markets, such as Poland, the USA, the UK, and Germany. Aggregated and anonymised data will be used to compare all monitored indicators with destinations such as Vienna or Berlin and will be handled in full compliance with GDPR rules. The contract with Mastercard is concluded for four years and will provide access to data from selected key source markets. It is a modern analytical tool that will provide destinations with, e.g., visual processing of trends and interim reports. A contract of this size was prepared and elaborated for approximately a year and a half. It was awarded to Mastercard Europe SA in an open tender pursuant to European law with a value of 790,000 EUR for a four-year period. “We are pleased that Prague and CzechTourism are among the innovative destinations that are aware of the importance of working with quality data and their fundamental role in informed decision-making. Advanced data analytics is now a key tool for tourism management and we are pleased to be a partner in this transformational change. We appreciate the long-term vision of both institutions to gradually incorporate data into all key processes, from monitoring visitor trends, through creating strategies, planning destination development, or marketing activities and campaigns, to their evaluation. We believe that such an approach also contributes to a more effective use of public funds. We are very much looking forward to this cooperation and are convinced that it will bring significant added value to the city and the regions,” concludes Jana Lvová, Chief Executive Officer of Mastercard for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
