Take it Slow

Prague is one of Europe's most visited cities, and overtourism has become a growing concern. Meanwhile, the rest of the Czech Republic remains largely undiscovered by travellers, despite offering rich cultural heritage, diverse landscapes, and authentic experiences. Austria represents a particularly promising and underleveraged market. Its geographic proximity makes the Czech Republic easily accessible for both short breaks and longer trips, yet Austrian travellers rarely venture beyond Prague. Unlocking this market and redirecting visitor flows toward regions such as Moravia, South Bohemia, or the Krkonoše mountains could simultaneously relieve pressure on the capital and stimulate economic growth in areas that are currently missing out on tourism revenue. The core challenge is therefore twofold: first, inspiring Austrian travellers to extend their stay beyond Prague; and second, positioning other Czech regions as compelling, stand-alone destinations worth the trip on their own.

Our solution taps into current travel trends: slow tourism, experience-led travel and sustainable travel.. Despite Czechia's richness, Austrian travellers are largely unaware of what lies beyond Prague, so our primary challenge is also one of discovery and inspiration.

The Slogan: Czech it out! The Product: An Immersive Virtual Train Journey

At the heart of the solution is an immersive website that represents the experience of travelling through Czechia by train. As the scenery rolls by, users encounter authentic regional experiences — beer culture, nature spots, spa & wellness and many more — and can save anything that resonates to build their own personalised itinerary. By the end, they have not just a trip plan, but a journey that feels genuinely theirs. The train format is deliberate: Czechia has an extensive and underutilised rail network, and we want to position train travel as the natural, scenic, and sustainable way to explore the country. The Campaign: Two-Sided Content Engine To drive awareness and engagement, the platform is supported by a two-sided social media campaign built around authenticity over influence.

Local voices first. Czech locals are invited to create short-form video content showcasing their region's hidden gems — the kind of places no travel guide features. Submissions are evaluated across multiple dimensions including originality, reach, and community engagement, with standout creators awarded a cash prize. This produces a growing library of real, credible content rooted in local pride.

Secondly, sharing your travel journey. Once users (i.e. Austrian tourists) have built their itinerary on the platform, an AI-generated reel brings their journey to life — playful, personalised, and made to share. Users who share their reel enter a draw to win the very trip they designed, turning the planning experience into a social moment and a word-of-mouth engine.

Together, these two layers create a flywheel: locals generate authentic content that inspires Austrians to explore, Austrians build and share their dream journeys, and the campaign grows organically from both ends.

Our primary client is Czech Tourism, the national body responsible for promoting Czechia as a destination abroad. We are helping them close a specific gap: Austrian travellers who are geographically close, culturally compatible, and logistically well-positioned to visit — yet currently overlook Czechia almost entirely, or limit themselves to a trip to Prague. But the solution ultimately serves two audiences at once. For Austrian travellers, it removes the friction of not knowing where to go or what to do beyond the obvious. By surfacing hidden regional experiences in an engaging, personalised way, we make it easier — and more compelling — to say yes to a longer, more adventurous trip closer to home. For Czech communities outside Prague, particularly in regions that have long been bypassed by international tourism, it opens a new economic channel and gives locals a platform to share what makes their region worth visiting. Why it matters goes beyond tourism numbers. This initiative sits at the intersection of three challenges that are increasingly urgent:

Overtourism relief. By drawing visitors away from an oversaturated Prague and redistributing them across the country, we reduce the burden on the capital while creating genuine opportunity elsewhere. Regional economic development. Tourism revenue flowing into lesser-known regions supports local businesses, hospitality, and cultural preservation in areas that need it most. Sustainable travel behaviour. By centring the entire experience around train travel, we actively encourage a lower-carbon way of exploring — positioning Czechia not just as a destination, but as a model for how regional tourism can be done responsibly.

In short, this is not just a marketing campaign. It is a targeted intervention that benefits travellers, local communities, and the broader goal of making European tourism more balanced and sustainable.

We built a interactive prototype of the virtual train journey website — the core of our solution — allowing users to browse regional Czech experiences as scrolling scenery and save selections to a personalised itinerary. We then conducted user testing to gather feedback on the concept, usability, and overall experience, and iterated on the design accordingly.

On the **product side**, the most immediate priority is replacing placeholder AI-generated imagery with authentic visuals drawn from Czech Tourism's existing photo and video database, ensuring the experience feels real and credible from the first interaction. We will also expand the number of regional sections covered, introduce smarter personalisation to better match experiences to individual traveller preferences, and refine the route map to reflect actual train connections rather than shortest geographic distances — making the journey feel like a true rail adventure.

For **booking and planning functionality**, the next version will allow users to move seamlessly from inspiration to action, with integrated options to book accommodation, and hotel recommendations tailored to each itinerary. The goal is to close the loop between dreaming and booking within a single experience.

On the **campaign side**, we plan to pilot the local content creator strategy on social media — testing the incentive model, refining the submission and evaluation process, and building an initial library of authentic regional content. In parallel, we will develop and implement the AI reel generator, the feature that turns a user's personalised itinerary into a shareable, playful video — completing the social loop and activating word-of-mouth growth.