Supreme Prague
Adapting to Meet a New World in Tourism
After more than a decade spent working alongside her mother, Eva, at Supreme Prague, a business that offers guided tours and other tourism-related services in and around the Czech capital, Lenka Dvorakova thought she knew the full spectrum of ups and downs in the tourism industry. 2020, of course, changed those preconceptions, but with the characteristic pragmatism of business owners that have seen transformation before, the Dvorakovas are observing the new world around them and waiting to see how they can best adapt to meet it.
The mother-daughter team had carved out a niche in Prague's bustling tourist trade and were looking ahead to a bright future when global travel came to a screeching halt. Now, as they seek to relaunch in a post-pandemic world, Eva's experiences building a business in the Czech Republic's tumultuous post-soviet era are a tremendous asset when it comes to dealing with uncertainty.
The Dvorakova's story in tourism goes back to 1992 when Eva Dvorakova started operating as a private tour guide shortly after the Velvet Revolution. As the years went on, her business gradually grew. After Lenka completed her university degree, she started working part-time as a guide for other agencies before joining her mother to see how far they could take Supreme Prague as a family business.
From the outset, it was clear who would be responsible for different aspects of the business. As the more tech-savvy of the two, Lenka set about building the business’ online presence, while Eva took responsibility for the administrative aspects, such as keeping the books and forging new business relationships.
Recently, we sat down with Lenka Dvorakova to discuss Prague's draw as a tourist destination, how technology has changed their business and what the tourism industry might look like in a post-pandemic Europe.
Compared with when your mother started working as a tour guide, how has the tourism industry evolved in Prague?
It's changed tremendously. After the revolution, when people like my mother entered the tourism industry, most were already in their 30s, if not older. The demand wasn’t high, so businesses were built on word of mouth and reputation, with tourists mainly relying on booklets in hotels and face-to-face interactions with tour operators.
However, when tourism in Prague started to grow, everything moved online – and it was my generation who stepped in and seized the opportunity that modern technology presented. These days, online review sites such as Trip Advisor are more influential than hotel booklets.
Within the past ten years, we’ve seen an increase in tour busses from other parts of the world: for example, as part of long tours through Central Europe. There are a lot of people from Asia or South America who want to gain an understanding of the culture and the history of Prague in a short space of time, and those people make up a large portion of our clients.
What has developed is a growing chasm between two groups of tourists. One is more of a “bucket list” group – people who come to Prague predominantly just to say they’ve been here. They’ll see the main tourist sites and take a selfie with a castle behind them, but they won’t really explore the city. The other group is made up of people who spend three or four days here and really try to get to know the area.
Eva and Lenka Dvorakova, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Eva and Lenka Dvorakova, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Typical Czech platter, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Typical Czech platter, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
What has developed is a growing chasm between two groups of tourists. One is more of a “bucket list” group – people who come to Prague predominantly just to say they’ve been here. They’ll see the main tourist sites and take a selfie with a castle behind them, but they won’t really explore the city. The other group is made up of people who spend three or four days here and really try to get to know the area.
Supreme Prague and guests, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Supreme Prague and guests, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Lenka Dvorakova, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Lenka Dvorakova, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
How did the local people react to the influx of tourists?
When I was growing up in the 90s, the locals wondered where all the tourists were. After all, Prague is so beautiful, but everyone was visiting London and Rome instead. Now that tourists have discovered the beauty of our city, and it’s become a major destination, many of the locals long for the quieter days.
Of course, people appreciate the tourism industry, but during peak season, it can feel overcrowded. There are times you cannot walk through the downtown area, often because tourists are constantly trying to take pictures, and this sometimes agitates the locals. Therefore, with the downturn in tourism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the locals are enjoying feeling as though Prague belongs to them again.
Have you and your mother had time yet to sit down and plan out strategies for the future?
It should come as no surprise to hear that the current global situation has affected us greatly. Easter traditionally marks the beginning of the tourism season in Prague, but this year, there was nothing – the first half of the season, April through June, was lost completely. Tourism has picked up somewhat again, but still, we're only seeing Europeans.
So, right now, all we can do is wait. There’s no point launching any new strategies because we don’t yet know what the future holds. This year’s bookings have been cancelled, and while we’ve had some inquiries about next year, there is still a lot of trepidation. It’s just incredibly difficult for anyone to plan for a future that is so uncertain.
Five months ago, I would never have imagined that tourism could come to a complete stop. We haven’t seen anything remotely close to this in living memory, so I never realised how vulnerable the industry could be.
Whenever I can, I will use our status as a family business to differentiate us from the competition. My go-to sentence is, “We are a family business run by mother and daughter.” People seem to respond well to that, which makes me happy – and it helps to make Supreme Prague successful.
What are the most important technologies for tourism going forward?
I think it depends on the demographic. My clients tend to be people who are doing well financially, and they want an experience with someone with whom they can talk and ask questions. Therefore, technology shouldn’t impact my segment of tourism.
However, there are some phone apps that you can download that use the GPS on your phone to give you a virtual guided tour as you stroll through the city. Other technology uses augmented reality that can show you pictures of what that area looked like in the past.
Without a doubt, these technologies will be increasingly used in tourism in the coming years. But although I see this type of enhanced experience being the cherry on the top of the cake, it’s not actually the cake itself – that’s what Supreme Prague offers.
How do you and your mother deal with competition in the tourism industry?
Dealing with competition is a huge part of working in the tourism industry. Pretty much every single guide has a website, including big international firms.
That means that we, as a small company, are generally not very visible online – after all, to be at the top of Google searches for Prague tourism, you need to drive a lot of traffic to your website. That equates to millions of inquiries, and the fact is, we’re never going to have that.
To overcome this problem, we need to be clearly visible on platforms such as Trip Advisor, and that means a lot of good reviews. That's really the only accurate record of quality these days.
Whenever I can, I will use our status as a family business to differentiate us from the competition. My go-to sentence is, “We are a family business run by mother and daughter.” People seem to respond well to that, which makes me happy – and it helps to make Supreme Prague successful.
Lenka on a tour, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Lenka on a tour, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Charles Bridge, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Charles Bridge, image courtesy of Supreme Prague
Do you expect many of your competitors to survive this economic shutdown, or do you predict many of them closing for good?
The tourism industry in Prague has a slightly bad reputation because of scam artists – and because there are so many tour operators here, it’s difficult to tell who’s reputable and who’s not. Due to the pandemic, however, I think that a lot of tour operators will have to shut down due to guides being forced to find other jobs.
Hopefully, that will encourage a kind of clean-up of the tourism sector here. Whether it’s restaurants or guided tours, the businesses that survive will be those that have proven to be strong and reputable – and, therefore, when this pandemic is over, the best of Prague can be shown to the rest of the world.
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