First of all, there was a big change in 1995 when Unimex took over Cedok, could you be more precise about the reason why did you decide to take over Cedok?
Cedok has been a great name since 1920, because it was actually the first European tour travel agency with very long history and if you go through it, you know why we had an interest in Cedok. Even if it had very bad management and very bad results, we saw the potentiality there and that was the reason why we went for it.
What did you change in Cedok four years ago?
Everything: management, information system, products, relations to our clients, the image of the agencies...
How much do you own in Cedok?
We have around 60%, and around 30% is owned by Swiss Bank, and we work together because they were interested in our investment strategy. That is why they wanted to participate.
What are the main guidelines of your strategy, and how do you see the future growth of Cedok?
When we are talking about strategies as far as tourism it is about mass production, but on the other side, traditionally, Cedok has done very much on individual basis. So it is about mass production, but on the other side we would not like to forget our individual clients as well, and business travel and so on. So we have pretty wide scope of our activities. Cedok is known because it is a strongest agency in outgoing, domestic travel.
Could you give me some figures about how many tourists are coming to Prague and to the Czech Republic, is it 80 millions tourists?
I have to rely on statistical data, but the figure might be a little exagerate, because some of the clients might just come to the border area of the Czech Republic and stay just for one day. 70 millions tourists is perhaps a more fair figure.
Talking about the tourism sector, in our opinion, Cedok is like the Czech promotion agency. How do you explain that there is no state owned promotion agency which would be doing the promotion for the country to attract the tourists?
This question should be addressed to our government. For example the governments in Poland and Hungary put more money into promoting their countries than the Czech Republic does. It depends on the governmental strategy. I do not think they have a strategy on this field, but everybody knows how influential it is to advertise globaly. You can see the results in for example Hungary; how many foreign companies came in, what kind of impact does it have etc. So it is really unfortunate that our government neglects it.
Everything is in your hands, so how do you market the Czech Republic abroad?
We have 9 companies abroad and what we do, we do it for the Czech Republic as well. We promote the Czech Republic from private funds. Of course the scope of the promotion can not be so wide and persuasive like the governmental one, but we have to do it according to our own interest. We can see a big potentiality still in our neighbouring countries, and in America and Great Britain.
But you have some relations with the state anyway...
We have a good relationship with the ministry of Regional development, but there are not financial sources and this is not the priority of the government either, so they can not do much.
The tourism sector is really a booming sector but I think that more can be done. How do you explain that there is not strong competition among all the foreign tourist operators to attract tourists?
One of the reasons why the big operators are not coming here are the prices which are in the Czech Republic far below their prices. The second reason is that they are still not sure about the political and economical stability for their investments.
Nevertheless, there is a big competition among the domestic agencies.
Question now is more related to the Czech economy, but also to what you have just said. You are a businessman and the Czech Republic has been in recession for last 2 years, now it seems that the growth is coming. How do you estimate the investment climate in the Czech Republic?
This is a good country with enormous potentiality,
but one has to be patient. There is a difference
between middle size business and multinational companies.
For example for the multinational companies with
their strategies, the Czech Republic provides perfectly
healthy environment compared for example to Russia,
where they already invest a lot. But for the middle
size companies, there is for example a problem of
the inforcement of the law. This government however
has opened up the Czech Republic much more for the
foreign investment. |
Do you think that the Czech Republic is going to join the European Union in 2003?
No. I can only guess, but I think rather 2007 or 2008.
Coming back to a tourism sector, could you mention to our readers the investment opportunities in this country?
I can see some progress for example in the area of hotel infrastructures, where few american companies are interested in buying a hotel chain in the Czech Republic. With the foreign tourist operators it is only a question of time when they come here in terms of acquisitions, merges, using the local knowhow etc.
Do you see there are still opportunities in Prague, or are they more in the regions, out of Prague?
Not only in Prague but in the regions as well. For example in Plzen, there are a lot of foreign companies but you can not find a good hotel there, so this is a great opportunity for a multinational company. Also, Plzen is just some 60 km from Germany. I could talk this way region by region, and there is a lot of opportunities, but investors just do not know about them. It is again a problem of promotional activities of the government, but I must say that it has improved during last 2 years.
Being the C.E.O of Cedok, could you mention some of your favourite places in the Czech Republic to visit?
Apart from Prague, which is a great place to visit, I personally like to spend few days in Southern Bohemia, which is a very nice area with historical cities like Cesky Krumlov. But in all the regions there are beauties, which are undiscovered even by Czechs, like Norhtern Moravia with Beskydy mountains etc. Even if there is a very high unemployment rate, the nature is still there and nice people as well.
We also came to interview you as a businessmen, so as a more personal question, could you give us a brief background about your own professional experience?
I started in a Foreign Trade company doing investment plans. We were exporting investment plans which was to me a real university of foreign trade. Then I lived few years abroad and just before the Velvet revolution I runned the largest Czech company in Africa, in Zambia. I was in charge of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Leshoto. I wanted to be loyal to my employer so I stayed there until 1991. In 1991 I started my own business in duty free field, and I lent money for it. We had to start from zero, because there was no legislation, and we also had to persuade the government. In 1991 we started first duty free business in Austrian border. We went also into 'do it yourself' business, we started the diversion into travel activities. We are developers as well, we own a lot of realities around Prague and now we are going to have, I hope, a big project in a telecommunication sector.
What has been your most satisfying personal achievement?
That I am in peace with myself, that there is no one to tell me what to do, that I have to decide and I can decide right now and I can see results. So I am to be blamed for all the mistakes. On the other side, I have a good feeling if something comes out well. I can not afford too many mistakes, I feel great deal of responsibility for the people I employ. I think everywhere the success depends on people, and in our company most of the people have worked wit us from the very beginning. This is a base of our success, we attribute a lot of attention to the relations between people, how to talk to them, how to present our case to persuade them and of course we have to persuade them by personal examples, it is team work...
What would be your final message to our readers?
The Czech Republic is a great country with a great potentiality and it is good for the investment but it is necessary to have a good knowledge of the local market. |
