(Media1=Jungchan Lee) With the end of the year CzechTourism celebrates another successful result of Korean incoming to Prague and Czech destinations reaching almost 300 thousand in 2016, as well as the inscription of Czech puppetry and marionettes theatre on the list of UNESCO.
UNESCO announced on December that it has enlisted Slovak and Czech puppetry art on Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. “Marionettes theatre for communities in Slovakia and Czechia is not only a popular form of traditional entertainment but also a way of conveying a vision of the world, and an educational tool with messages on moral values,” it is written in the explication on the UNESCO web site now.
“It is obviously a great news for us since Prague marionettes have been already an object of big curiosity by Korean travellers. If you see a guide on Prague offered on Korean bookshelf, there is probably a puppetry photo on the cover. And UNESCO identification can help to promote Czech with that original pedigree coming deeply from our culture roots,” says CzechTourism Seoul office director Micael Prochazka.
Koreans can travel to Czech to see puppetry not only in Prague – the very known Don Giovanni performance, but also in a marvelous Museum loutek in Plze?or in ?ský Krumlov or in Museum of Marionettes
Initial bearers of the puppets practice were families of travelling puppeteers whose works later absorbed local influences in language and themes using namely comical figures with distinct characteristics. Puppet theatre is an integral part of Slovak and Czech local theatre and literary tradition. “Its essential part were stories about funny character Kašpárek, fairy tales for children or transcription of big theatre plays into marionettes forms,” explains Prochazka the whole range of puppetry genres.
It is already beautiful to see the craftmanship of engraving a magic and characters into a wooden figure. A marionette has become a popular souvenir to bring from Prague trip. But puppetry also plays an important role in socialization within a theatre space, helping performers to develop as creative thinkers and learn about cooperation, communication and to strengthen their sense of identity in society.
Czech puppetry is enlisted next to other Czech intangled heritage like Moravian folk dances Verbu? or Odzemek. Czech Republic is honored by another 12 UNESCO historical sights, listing Prague Downtown, ?ský Krumlov, Kutná Hora historical center, Olomouc St. Trinity Column, Lednice and Valtice Area, T?bí? Zelená Hora Pilgrimage Church, Villa Tugendhat, Litomyšl, Krom淋í?Flower garden and Holašovice village.
Czech as a progressively stable and growing destination
Another record result of Korean tourists travelling to Czech Republic is on sight for CzechTourism. According to Czech Statistic office, there was 249 000 Koreans to visit Prague or surrounding destinations for only ¾ of this year. In the perspective of this figure, we can eye the total incoming figure for 2016 to beat last year record result of 257 000 and nearing to 300 thousand line.
“What we are very happy to see that Czech destinations is developing in a progressive way around 20 percent every year – in various segments, especially on FIT market. We are having more than 40 percent people to travel to Czech as FIT and 10 percent of travellers buy only the airticket with an agency and book everything by themselves. That shows a good sign of a safe and trustworthy destination, where Koreans can feel more self confident,” adds Prochazka.
This result is due to a fruitful collaboration with airlines companies, while profiting first of all from Koreanair and ?A direct flights. But lately another airlines are including Prague more and more in their sales and marketing plans. For example Turkish Airlines supported EBS shooting of four World Thema Programs dedicated to Czech destinations that were aired in November.
“What we see essential is a development of more quality products and new destinations that must go hand in hand with a development of new content on the market. TV and video shootings, blogger trips, travel communities trips – this is what makes for us a great asset for targeting younger travellers. We are trying to show them and teach them how to travel to Eastern Europe and enjoy its romantic fairy tale like and free spirit character. The Czech and Prague marionettes could be a new topic to focus now on more into hopefully Happy New Year of 2017,” closes Prochazka.
Photo by @czechtourism.com
