The new tourist season in Brno and South Moravia has started with the beginning of spring. After a successful year in 2025, when Brno welcomed over 870,000 overnight visitors, the entire region of South Moravia is offering new attractions and established ones. Gastronomy and festivals are at the forefront, and important personalities and anniversaries are commemorated.
According to preliminary data from the Czech Statistical Office, over 870,000 visitors spent at least one night in Brno in 2025. Slovaks, Poles and Germans dominate among them, and Brno is also popular with South Koreans and Hungarians.
“Brno is attractive to visitors not only in terms of architecture or monuments, but they appreciate the lively center, the diverse range of cultural and leisure events, and the great gastronomic and coffee scene, which is among the best in Central Europe,” said Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková.
The most important driver of tourism is still the Brno Christmas markets. Data from mobile operators recorded over 3 million visitors in 2025, and shows that the strongest day was 6 December, when more than 43,000 people visited the center of Brno.
A gastronomical destination…
The main attraction of Brno and the whole of South Moravia is its high-quality gastronomy, which was backed up by the Michelin and Gault&Millau guides and crowned by the highest award of a Michelin star for the South Moravian restaurant Essens, in the Hraniční zámeček in the Lednice-Valtice area.
“South Moravia offers gastronomic quality that can be compared to the world, but at the same time remains accessible and authentic,” said the Governor of the South Moravian Region, Jan Grolich. “The region’s effort is to support local producers and those who work with their products.”
This year, the South Moravian Region will once again support the Festivals Full of Flavors, which will take place in four locations from May to September: Moravský Krumlov, Kyjov, Letovice, and Veselí nad Moravou.
The reputation of local gastronomy has been developed over the long term by the Gourmet Brno projects, run by TIC Brno for 10 years, and the younger Gourmet South Moravia, organized by the South Moravia Central Tourism Office.
“Great food and drink are now a reason for many people to travel,” said Jana Janulíková, director of TIC BRNO. “Thanks to the Gourmet Brno project, we can cooperate with a number of businesses on a long-term and year-round basis. We present Brno as an interesting destination for gourmands and connoisseurs, specifically, for example, during Brno Christmas, accompanying activities for the Janáček Brno festival or as part of the #BrnoTrueStory destination brand.”
The Gourmet South Moravia guide is also connected to other activities in the South Moravian tourism industry. “This year, we are emphasizing gastronomy a lot in a new year-round campaign that targets women travelers,” said Martina Grůzová, director of the South Moravian Tourism Centre. “We are also trying to involve the award-winning establishments from the Gourmet guide in the MojaKarta project, which offers benefits for visitors who spend at least two nights in the region.”
A city of history and architecture…
An important part of Brno’s appeal to tourists are its architectural monuments, especially the iconic villas. The main event of this season is the jubilee of the Tugendhat Villa, which in 2026 will celebrate 25 years since its addition to the UNESCO World Heritage List and 140 years since the birth of its architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Celebrations will take place throughout the year, offering a number of cultural and professional events. In the summer, an August festival will connect the gardens of the Tugendhat, Arnold, and Löw-Beer Villas, to create a unique space for an open-air cultural program.
Also this year, the Stiassni Villa will present an outdoor exhibition dedicated to the topic of forced emigration during Nazism, detailing the fates of the Stiassni family and other notable personalities associated with Brno. The Löw-Beer Villa continues its series of exhibitions mapping the history of the Löw-Beer family and cultural programs in the garden, complemented by guided walks and an open-air cinema. For the Moravian Gallery, the imaginary thread of the season is the Year of Fashion, which will be reflected in the program at the Jurkovič Villa. From 24 April, fashion designer Lukáš Macháček will exhibit a special collection called Hanácká, inspired by folk tradition and ceremony.
“This season will be a turning point for the Brno City Museum,” said the museum’s director Zbyněk Šolc. “From 1 May, we are opening a new castle restaurant, in August we will open the first part of the modernized casemates, and from September we will welcome the Land of Wine exhibition, which will present Moravia as a wine region right in the heart of Brno. Špilberk castle will remain open until the night – the bastion and casemates have self-guided tours until 6 pm, and in the summer until 9 pm. We are also starting the final phase of the restoration of the castle grounds.”
A separate chapter is the Brno underground, which has been growing in interest in recent years, with over a quarter of a million visitors in 2025. As well as prominent cultural events in the Žlutý kopec reservoirs, under the banner of VodojeMyArt, smaller thematic programs are held in other buildings at Easter, on Brno Day, All Souls’ Day or Halloween, or during the Christmas markets. On 7 May, the Capuchin Tomb is celebrating 370 years since the consecration of the monastery on Brno’s Kapucínské náměstí.
…and cultural delights for everyone
Another main attraction in South Moravia this year will be the development of beer tourism, which complements the traditional wine-growing reputation of the region. This year, South Moravian destinations present several projects connecting craft breweries with active movement. A new 53-kilometer Brewery Trail is opening in the Moravian Karst, which will take walkers and cyclists from historic manor breweries to modern microbreweries, while the Znojmo region is inviting visitors to an interactive experience to mark the 800th anniversary of the founding of the city. The unique Beer Trail through Znojmo will connect eight stops around the city, and will be supplemented in April by three more thematic branches in the vicinity of Vranov, Šatov and Moravský Krumlov.
“2026 is a year of significant anniversaries for South Moravia: the Moravian Karst Protected Landscape Area celebrates 70 years since its establishment, and 50 years have passed since the Pálava Protected Landscape Area was declared,” said František Lukl, Deputy Governor of South Moravia for Tourism. “Visitors can look forward to special weekend events that will offer normally unavailable experiences, such as cave tours off standard routes or guided walks to explore the biodiversity of the Pálava steppes.”
In its 2026 cultural program, Brno will confirm its reputation as a vibrant cultural metropolis, with a calendar full of prestigious festivals and world-class sporting events. The summer season will be kicked off by the multi-genre Mendel Festival, followed by another year of the popular Planet Festival, Brno Music Marathon, Pop Messe, and Brazil Fest Brno. There will also be the traditional Brno Day, the multi-genre UPROSTŘED festival, the Month of Author Reading, and the Brno Art Open festival, which transforms the city into an open-air gallery of contemporary art in the summer. Sports fans can look forward to the return of the MotoGP championship, which the Masaryk Circuit will host in the new pre-holiday period of 19–21 June.
The world-famous painter Alfons Mucha will also feature prominently. From June, the famous native of Ivančice will be commemorated with a new symbolic bench near Brno’s Petrov Cathedral, which will serve as the starting point for a two-hour audio-guided walk through Brno to see places connected with the life of the famous painter.
Autumn will be dominated by the jubilee 10th year of the international Janáček Brno festival, which this time will be subtitled ‘Roots’, and will present the complete operatic work of the composer’s genius performed by top world musicians. October will see the 12th year of the Prototyp light and digital art festival, which will this year move fully into the centre of Brno, after years underground, transforming familiar places into a living open-air gallery using large-format projections, video mapping and light objects. The autumn months will also be enlivened by the BRNO16 short film festival, and everything will be rounded off by the city’s iconic Christmas markets.
