Karlovarský týden

The idea of adding to promotion of the Czech Republic by including a discussion of current topics related to the tourism and spa industries as a way of increasing the visibility of these topics not only for professionals, but also for the public as a whole, has led to the combination of the Tourfilm Festival, the oldest festival of films with tourism themes, with the Spa Festival and Spa Conference under the name Carlsbad Week.

The need for such an event first began being considered as early as in 2005. The event has succeeded in attracting professionals as well as shoppers from the Czech Republic and abroad to Karlovy Vary each year at the beginning of October ever since 2006. However, the Carlsbad Week is also an event for the citizens of Karlovy Vary, and therefore several parts of the whole event are open to the public.

The initiator of this project on behalf of the Czech Tourism Industry Board - CzechTourism is its director and the current Minister for Regional Development of the Czech Republic Rostislav Vondruška, who explains, “One of the objectives of the CzechTourism agency is to promote the Czech Republic as a spa destination, and therefore since 2006 we have combined the already traditional and publicly well received and acclaimed Tourfilm festival with a spa presentation.” It should be pointed out that Rostislav Vondruška earned an award of recognition for his contribution to the tourism industry in relation to the Spa Festival for introducing the brand Carlsbad Week to the tourism industry market in 2008.