The Czech capital is trying to change its image and push away less desirable visitors. Its municipal council voted this Monday, October 14, to ban “barathons” organized by travel agencies.
If there is a city whose soul has been drowned by the tens of thousands of billions of liters of beer drunk by tourists who came to drink for ridiculous prices, it is Prague. Since the explosion of low-cost flights from Ryanair and other low-cost companies, the Czech capital has become one of the symbols of overtourism, a historic city that has become a jewel of Eastern Europe having survived wars and the communist dictatorship to a paradise of Airbnb and cheap bars that are now unlivable in the city center for its residents.
Faced with this, the authorities are trying to act (a little). The Prague bar crawl organized at night by travel agencies is over: the Czech capital, keen to protect local residents from the excesses accompanying these nighttime outings, particularly appreciated by British customers, decided this Monday, October 14 to prohibit them, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Its municipal council voted in this direction.
For city council member Jiri Pospisil, Prague is “looking for a more cultured, wealthier tourist […] and not a tourist who comes for a short time just to get drunk.” Vaclav Starek, director of the Czech Hotel and Restaurant Association, welcomes the decision: “No one will be banned from going to a pub but these tours organized every evening […] are not necessary.”
The Czech capital, which has a population of 1.3 million, has long been a popular destination for often raucous stag parties. Its bars serve pints at unbeatable prices, sometimes cheaper than water. Just like Krakow, a city in southern Poland, stormed by an incessant tide of drunk visitors to the point that some residents have filed a complaint against the town hall.
The measure taken will perhaps make it possible to reduce, slightly, the average consumption of liters of beer per capita (128 per year, a world record). But, without wanting to make tired local residents feel depressed, it is too early to talk about a real metamorphosis.
