Prague to ban organised pub crawls
Prague has become the latest city in Europe to implement measures in the hopes of reducing disruptive tourism. The Czech capital has announced plans to instil a crackdown on organised pub crawls through the city, specifically targeting tourists and stag/hen-dos, who have long been attracted to Prague as a result of its volume of pubs and relatively low drink prices.
According to authorities in the city, organised pub crawls organised by travel agencies will be forbidden between the hours of 22:00pm and 06:00am, with police forces given power to enforce the ban on the ground. Prague’s Deputy Mayor Jiri Pospisil affirmed that “refinement and respect for shared public space are a priority” for the city, which this ban will hope to increase.
Meanwhile, Prague City Council discussed the various benefits of cracking down on “organised movements of tourists from pub to pub, disrupting the night peace, especially in the centre.”
Much of the discourse surrounding the ban has focused on the fact that this ban on pub crawls will create a more peaceful, respectful atmosphere within the historic city at nighttime, but the ban will also likely alleviate some of the strain on Prague’s resources.
After all, rowdy foreign pub crawls do much more than cause a bit of noise. As anybody who has ever been to a pub or bar will gladly tell you, certain people can get quite rowdy or violent under the influence of alcohol. As you can imagine, the influx of stags and hens into the city leads to increased call-outs for emergency services in Prague, in addition to street cleaners.
Seemingly, this decision has passed through without pushback from locals, authorities, or businesses in Prague. Even the pubs, bars, and restaurants themselves have recognised the importance of the new law, with Vaclav Starek of the Czech Association of Hotels and Restaurants telling the AFP news agency, “I don’t think this will hurt our sales. Nobody will be banned from going to a pub, but these nightly organised pub crawls…are nothing we would need.”
Since Czechia’s liberation from the USSR back in 1989, Prague has been a tourist destination for its stunning architecture and rich history. However, the city is often noted for its cheap abundance of alcohol, which has attracted pub tourists to the city for decades.
Prague is certainly not the first European city to discourage rowdy, intoxicated tourists. Recently, Amsterdam implemented a ban on public cannabis smoking in an attempt to discourage people travelling from abroad to take advantage of the Netherlands’ lax laws on drug use. Since its implementation last year, the city has reportedly witnessed a decrease in anti-social behaviour.
