The map shows the territory of your destination as it really lies: the individual municipalities, how they are split into tourism areas and the borders showing how far the scope of each destination management company reaches. It comes in handy whenever you need to see spatial context, that is which municipalities belong to you, who your neighbours are and where the gaps in the territory are.
Before you start
The Map item is in the left menu in the Tourism data group. It only appears when your customer account has Tourism data of the region or Tourism data of the destination management company in its subscription. If you cannot see the Tourism data group in the menu at all, the tourism module is not connected to the account yet. Write through the contact form to have it switched on.
Anyone on the team can open the map, including the Viewer role. It is for viewing only, nothing on it can be saved, overwritten or deleted.
For there to be anything to draw on the map, the customer account must have a destination management company or a region assigned. You can see what is assigned in Settings → Customer account → Destination management. This assignment is set by Good Agency and is described in the article Destination management settings.
Procedure
- In the left menu click Tourism data to expand the group.
- Click the Map item.
- Wait a moment. First the map base loads, then the municipality outlines are gradually drawn over it. You can see the progress at the bottom left as the message Loading... and two numbers, for example 8/14. The first number says how many parts of the territory are already done, the second how many there will be in total.
- As soon as the numbers match, the message disappears and the map is complete.
What the map shows
The map opens over the whole of Czechia and draws the municipalities in the entire region (or regions) in which your destination management company lies. Each municipality is a separately outlined shape, so next to your own territory you also see the neighbouring municipalities that do not fall under you.
The colour fill of a municipality means one single thing: which tourism area the municipality belongs to. A tourism area is a territorial unit according to the codelist of the Czech Statistical Office, which gas works with for destination management companies. All the municipalities of one area have the same colour, a neighbouring area has a different colour, so you can see where the border between them runs.
Apart from the fill, the outline of the municipality also differs:
- A thin dark outline is the normal state.
- A thicker red outline marks a municipality that gas has recorded at the destination management company as a municipality without a signed contract. In the legend this state is called No contract and the legend only lists it when at least one such municipality is on the map.
- A municipality without a fill, that is with an outline only and no colour, does not belong to any of the areas listed in the legend. This is usually a municipality of a neighbouring territory or a municipality that is not assigned to any destination management company.
Legend
The legend is a small panel at the right edge of the screen. By default only a narrow strip sticks out of it so that it does not cover the map. As soon as you hover over it with the mouse (on a touch screen tap it), it slides out fully and you see the list of tourism areas, each with a coloured square matching it on the map. Below the list there may be a No contract row with a red frame.
The colours in the legend are only for telling areas apart. They have no order and say nothing about how an area is performing. A more saturated shade does not mean a better or worse result.
Switching the indicator and the level of detail
This is the most common misunderstanding, so plainly: the map does not draw any indicator and nothing can be switched on it. It is not a heat map of visits or overnight stays. It shows the territorial division, not numbers.
That means:
- There is no metric selection on the map, no year selection and no level switching. The detail is always the same, that is individual municipalities. The only thing you change is the zoom.
- Clicking into a municipality does not open anything. The map has no value labels and no detail bubble.
- You will find the numbers elsewhere. Selecting an indicator and switching between the Region, Destination management and Municipality levels is on the Tourism data → Data page and is described in the article Tourism data and indicators. Comparing several destinations side by side is on the Destination comparison page.
How the map is controlled
The map base is supplied by Google, so it is controlled the same way as Google Maps, which you probably know.
- Zooming in and out: with the mouse wheel, with the + and − buttons in the corner of the map, or by double-clicking the place you want to zoom in on. On a touch screen by spreading and pinching two fingers.
- Panning: press the left mouse button over the map and drag. On a touch screen drag with your finger, and if the whole page moves instead of the map, try dragging with two fingers.
- Finding your area: the map has no search field and no list to click through, you find your territory by panning and zooming. It is quicker to zoom roughly to your region first and fine-tune afterwards.
- Base type: in the corner of the map there is a switch between the classic map and a satellite image. The satellite base is useful when you need to see what the territory actually looks like. The municipality outlines stay drawn over it too.
- Fullscreen: the button in the corner of the map stretches it across the whole browser window. You get back with the Esc key or the same button.
Why look at the map and not just at the table
A list of municipalities in a table tells you which municipalities belong to the destination. But it does not tell you where they lie and how they connect. On the map you see it straight away:
- Where the border between areas runs. In a table two areas are two lists of names, on the map they are two adjoining coloured patches.
- Where the territory has a hole. An uncoloured municipality in the middle of an otherwise continuous coloured patch is visible immediately, in an alphabetical list of municipalities it gets lost.
- Who your neighbour is. The map draws the whole region, so you can see which areas adjoin your territory and where you could expand.
- Where contracts are missing. Municipalities outlined in red cluster together on the map and you can tell whether they are isolated exceptions or a continuous strip of territory.
As soon as you need specific numbers for it, open the Tourism data page next to the map.
What happens next
The map loads its content once, at the moment you open the page. It has no refresh button and does not update itself while you work. When something changes in the data (for example a municipality is added to the destination management company), it will only show on the map after you reload the page in the browser, that is with the F5 key, on a Mac Cmd+R.
gas does not remember the zoom and the view you set. The next time you open it, you start over the whole of Czechia again.
Common problems
There is a white area instead of the map for a while
Until gas finds out which areas and municipalities to draw, the map is not displayed yet and there is an empty white area in its place with no spinning circle. Wait a moment, it usually takes a few seconds. If the area stays white even after a longer time, reload the page in the browser.
The map does not load at all
The base is supplied by Google and the browser needs a connection to Google servers for it. There are three most common causes: an internet outage, a browser extension that blocks third-party scripts (typically ad blockers), or a company network that does not allow access to Google Maps. Try reloading the page, temporarily switching off browser extensions, or opening the map from another network. If none of that helps, write through the contact form.
Loading... hangs at the bottom left and the number does not move
The municipality outlines are downloaded in parts of the territory and one of them failed to load. The map stays usable, only the outlines and colours are missing in part of the territory. Reload the page in the browser, that usually helps. If it keeps happening in the same place, write through the contact form and state which part of the territory is missing.
A whole chunk of the territory is missing, the outlines end in the middle of the region
This has the same cause as the previous point: one batch of outlines did not load. Reload the page in the browser.
A municipality has no colour at all
Either it does not belong to any destination management company that gas has recorded for your territory, or it belongs to a destination management company that is not recorded as a tourism area and therefore the legend does not list it. It is not a drawing error. If you are convinced the municipality should belong to one of your areas, write through the contact form and state its name.
Two different areas have the same colour
gas distinguishes areas with a set of eleven colours. When there are more areas in the region, the colours start to repeat and two distant areas can therefore come out the same. The legend and the position on the map tell them apart. If repeating colours are a problem in a specific output, write through the contact form.
The legend is empty, no areas are listed
That means no destination management company recorded as a tourism area is assigned to your customer account. Check Settings → Customer account → Destination management. If it is empty there too, write through the contact form.
I can only see the legend as a narrow strip at the right edge
That is on purpose, so that the legend does not cover the map. Hover over the strip with the mouse and it slides out fully. On a phone or tablet tap it with your finger and hold until it slides out.
A municipality has a red outline even though it has a contract
The red outline is based on the records gas has stored for the destination management company, not on a live connection to any registry. If the state does not match reality, write through the contact form with the name of the municipality and the correct state.
After switching the customer account the map still shows the same areas
The map loads its content only when the page opens, so after you switch the account in the top bar the previous one stays displayed. Reload the page in the browser (F5, on a Mac Cmd+R), or go to another page and come back to the Map.
The map opens over the whole of Czechia and I have to look for my territory
The map has a fixed default view of the centre of Czechia and does not zoom to your territory automatically. Zoom in on it manually with the mouse wheel or the + button. gas does not remember the view you set, the next time you open it you will start over the whole of Czechia again.
Clicking a municipality does nothing and there are no numbers anywhere
The map is purely a picture. Municipalities are not clickable and have no value labels. You will find the data about a specific municipality on the Tourism data → Data page, where you switch the level to Municipality and select the municipality from the list.
The map is hard to work with on a phone
The map takes up the whole area below the top bar and is controlled with fingers: drag to pan, spread two fingers to zoom in. If dragging with one finger moves the page instead of the map, try dragging with two fingers. You slide out the legend by tapping the strip at the right edge. On a small display only a small part of the territory is visible, so a computer or a tablet is more comfortable for working with a whole region.
I need to print the map or put it into a presentation
The map page has no print button and no print preparation like the ones you know from the pages with tables and graphs. If you print it through the browser menu, only what is currently visible on the screen will be printed and the layout may not come out well. It is more reliable to take a screenshot (on Windows with the Print Screen key or the Snipping Tool app, on a Mac with the Cmd+Shift+4 shortcut) and insert the image into the document. Slide the legend out before taking the screenshot so that all of it is in the image.
Before taking the screenshot, stretch the map to fullscreen and zoom in on your territory. The result is then readable even after it is scaled down into a presentation.