Travel Agency Established by Institution of PHE

The Vysočina region where The College of Polytechnics Jihlava (VŠPJ) is located has a great potential for tourism mainly because of its pure nature and rich cultural heritage including three UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Žďár nad Sázavou, Telč and Třebíč). However, tourist industry is not sufficiently developed in the region. The annual numbers of visitors are not comparable with other regions of this type in the Czech Republic (according to the statistics, the region has the second lowest number of accommodated guests among all the Czech regions). Besides missing quality of the infrastructure and services, there is also a lack of usable knowledge about the region itself. VŠPJ as a PHE institution with explicit regional mission and with accredited study program on tourism wants to be an important driving force in developing of the regional tourism. Therefore VŠPJ established its own travel agency in 2008 and yet it made the first step in promoting tourism in the Vysočina region. This type of entrepreneurial activity is very innovative and exceptional in the context of the Czech higher education. This agency provides standard tourist services and at the same time it is also an organization where students of tourism can complete their trainee-ships and develop their practical skills. Travel Agency of VŠPJ currently focuses on out-coming tourism including tours/trips to cultural events such as concerts, theater performances and musicals. Students expand their creativity while working together with other regional actors, such as diverse providers of tourist services, regional tourist offices etc.