Up until 2004, the city saw a rise of roughly 10 percent in the number of foreign visitors, according to the Czech Statistical Office. This year's growth is expected to be only 4 percent, amounting to a difference of 150,000 visitors. In 2005, 3.7 million tourists visited the city.

Halfway through the 2006 tourist season, some hotels are reporting above-average numbers of empty beds, but the Association of Czech Travel Companies and Agencies (AČCKA) contends there's a decrease in visitor numbers of less than 1 percent.

The rate at which tourism is growing in the Czech Republic continues to slow, but Tomio Okamura of AČCKA says that does not mean the industry is stagnating.

But people who have already visited Prague are not coming back, surveys show, and that seems to be a key cause of the slowdown.

"It's not that tourists are no longer interested in Prague," says Okamura. "This trend suggests that a lot of the European visitors who wanted to visit Prague in the 17 years since the opening of the borders following the Velvet Revolution have already done so."

Okamura adds, "So now we have to figure a way to make people want to come back."

The Mozart mistake

Travel professionals agree that Prague could be attracting more tourists and more return visits by making several small but important improvements.

"Parking spaces, public restrooms," says Milan Mazanec, a member of the board of the Czech Tour Guides Association. "It might seem like little things but it would make a big difference."

According to Okamura, Prague often isn't marketed to its best advantage.

"Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to me," he says. "Just look at this year, Prague is being promoted as the city of Mozart in connection with the anniversary of his birth. That's a big mistake. Vienna is already doing that. Mozart wasn't Czech, so there is no point in trying to compete with Vienna. This country should promote famous Czechs like Smetana or Kafka."

Of course, Prague has a lot going for it, he is quick to point out while speaking on the phone from Rome, standing in front of the postcard-perfect Trevi Fountain.

"Compared to Rome, Prague has a much better infrastructure. It's cleaner. There is less crime."

Welcome winter

Mozart notwithstanding, Prague would do well to take its cue from Vienna on another front: the winter season, which brings in crowds hungry to experience that city's famed opera houses and balls, Okamura says.

Jaroslava Nováková, the director of Pragotur at the Prague Information Service, says the city should also make winter festivals, such as masopust (a Slavic version of the Mardi Gras carnival) and the Christmas market into a bigger attraction.

Nováková points out that the AČCKA statistics don't mean that Prague is no longer attractive to tourists, even if the start of this year's tourist season has been a little slower.

"The growth in the number of visitors is consistently increasing from year to year," she says.

Hotel owners say they are having trouble staying full because Prague gains thousands of new hotel beds each season.

Indeed, increasing the number of luxury hotels is one of the ways that Prague could attract more tourists, according to Okamura. "In Prague, all the infrastructure is in place," he says. "It's now a matter of improving what's there."

Prague's image abroad has changed significantly during the last 17 years, and the type of tourists who come here reflects that.

"Prague is no longer a cheap city," says Nováková. Tourists come prepared to spend a lot of money. The average tourist spends nearly 3,000 Kč each day here. And more and more tourists come on their own rather than as groups organized by travel agencies. "People are better organized and more confident," says Mazanec of the Czech Tour Guides Association. "Prague is now perceived as a safe city."

But sometimes being safe isn't enough. Tourists also want comfort and friendly service, the latter still lacking in many Prague shops and attractions.