You are never alone on water: Safe navigation season 2021 has begun11/5/2021|Press releasesThe State Navigation Administration, the Ministry of Transport, representatives of water sports and the CzechTourism agency opened this year’s navigational season on Czech rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Due to the epidemiologic situation, this season will be unusual. We can expect greater interest in spending summer holidays in the Czech Republic. A new campaign “You are never alone on water” will remind all traffic users on water to behave according to the rules and be polite. “This summer, we expect an intensive traffic on waterways due to a higher interest in spending holidays on water and limited possibilities to travel abroad. That is the reason why we need to pay a bigger attention during the upcoming season. We would like to ask everyone to be polite and respect others”, said Minister of Transport Karel Havlíček. The State Navigation Administration (SPS), which cooperates with the police in monitoring of the behaviour on water, decided to adopt best practices on waterways, which are popular and with the heaviest traffic, to make sure that people on water and various vessels feel safe. “We will focus primarily on the safety of swimmers and people on small non-motorised vessels”, said Klára Němcová, the director of SPS. What will change during the summer? Czech water reservoirs will define 41 areas designated for swimming. A new navigational system will be introduced on 8 places in the Czech Republic (on certain stretches of water reservoirs and waterways). Motor boats and water scooters will have to slow down in these stretches. There will be designated areas for aerobatic navigation of small vessels and water skiing. The SPS will launch an audio-visual campaign for public: “You are never alone on water” (on YouTube, social media, in public space, etc.) Summer in the Czech Republic will not be without swimming and water sports “Swimming and water sports are one of the main activities of Czech tourists during summer holidays. Especially paddling on Czech rivers is an evergreen. But we can also see a greater interest in new water sports, such as paddleboards, wakeboards or jetsurfs. On a travel website Kudyznudy.cz, we have prepared an overview of paddling news and most popular camping sites for paddlers, invitations to the best swimming spots, walks behind waterfalls and other water related recommendations from our series #světovéČesko. Travellers can find inspiration for their summer holiday in the Czech Republic in a section Kudy z nudy – Léto u vody”, said Jan Herget, director of CzechTourism, and added, “Tourism is an important part of the economy. Before the coronavirus pandemic, it accounted for 3% of GDP, provided employment for over 240 thousand people and generated turnover of CZK 300 billion. Approximately 700 thousand people ride out on water per year meaning that we need to provide them with a sufficient capacity of camping sites, renting services, restaurants, but also castles or museums. According to the Marine Industry Association, the turnover generated solely by the sales of small vessels (kayaks, canoes, surfboards, paddleboards, inflatable boats) reached nearly CZK 100 million.” Information about the campaign Navigational waterways in the Czech Republic (ca. 720 km in total) are used not only for a regular water transport, but also as a leisure spots for various groups of people, such as operators of leisure motorised or non-motorised vessels, swimmers, fishermen, etc. By launching the campaign, the State Navigation Administration aims to promote values such as behaving according the rules and being polite towards each other. The campaign shows representatives of four modern water activities: water scooters, jetsurfs, wakeboards and water skis and paddleboards. “The idea was to show a general responsibility to be cautious and behave in a way that will not jeopardize safety on water, people’s lives or health, lead to damages to property or cause any accident on waterways”, explained David Raab, one of the participants and a president of the Czech Federation Stand Up Paddle. Lukáš Dražil, Czech representative in ride on water scooter stated that we have to be responsible, because “We are never alone on water”. The State Navigation Administration sees an increased interest in sport leisure activities not only on the Czech waterways, but also in other European countries. This can significantly affect the traffic safety on water.