Beer is still cheaper than water in some restaurants and the local lager will set you back fewer than three euros ($4.80) a pint.
There’s a reason why the Czech Republic has long reigned as the world’s thirstiest nation.
In 2023, the average Czech — counting all citizens, including newborns — drank a world-leading 128 litres of beer.
And its capital city has long been a popular destination for foreign beer lovers looking for the perfect bachelor(ette) parties and pub crawl, largely from Britain.
But this week, Prague city councillors announced that night-time pub crawls organised by travel agencies would now be banned.
“It will not be possible to have guided tours between 10pm and 6am [local time],” one deputy major said.
But why would Prague, a city synonymous with the words ‘a good time’, opt to make such a decision?
Is this (shudders) the end of the stag do?
Seeking a tourist who ‘not comes to get drunk’, says deputy
Prague City Council said councillors had approved an amendment limiting “organised movements of tourists from pub to pub, disrupting the night peace especially in the centre”, according to the BBC.
The decision was made on the grounds of noise, safety and cleanliness.
Deputy Mayor Jiri Pospisil said Prague City Hall was “seeking a more cultured, wealthier tourist” and are trying to avoid the visitor “who comes for a short time only to get drunk”.
He said he wanted “refinement and respect for shared public space” to become a priority in the city.
The head of the Czech Association of Hotels and Restaurants, Vaclav Starek, hailed city hall’s decision.
“Trips to the centre in search of beer have been a problem for local people and for other tourists too,” he told AFP.
He said that he did not believe the decision would hurt their sales.
Nobody will be banned from going to a pub but these nightly organised pub crawls … are nothing we would need.”
Not the first European city targeting tourists
Prague is not the only city in Europe that has long been trying to curb rowdy tourist behaviour.
In March last year, Amsterdam launched a campaign to discourage tourists from planning drug and alcohol-fuelled parties, in particular young British men aged between 18 and 35 years.
The Czech capital of 1.3 million people welcomed 7.4 million tourists in 2023. (Reuters: David W Cerny)
Dubbed Stay Away, it involves people searching online for certain getaways in Amsterdam and receiving special warnings.
People searching for terms such as “stag party Amsterdam” or “pub crawl Amsterdam” will be shown warning advertisements, the city council said.
“This online discouragement campaign is aimed at nuisance tourists who want to visit Amsterdam to ‘go wild’, with all the ensuing consequences,” they added.
It would be expanded to “potential nuisance-causing visitors from the Netherlands and other EU countries”.
The ads would show the “risks and consequences of anti-social behaviour and excessive drug and alcohol abuse”, including fines, arrest, criminal records, hospitalisation and health issues.
ABC/wires
