Following the lead of other European cities such as Venice, Amsterdam and Barcelona on overtourism, Prague has banned night-time pub crawls organised by tour operators in a bid to attract “more cultured” high-value travellers and curb antisocial tourist behaviour.
The Czech capital of 1.3 million people has been a popular stop for pub crawls and bucks parties, mostly for British tourists and others on organised tours.
The Guardian reported Prague Deputy Mayor Zdenek Hrib saying organised pub crawls in the Czech capital would now be banned with no guided tours allowed between 10pm and 6am.
Fellow Deputy Mayor Jiri Pospisil said Prague City Hall was “seeking a more cultured, wealthier tourist … not one who comes for a short time only to get drunk”.
The Czech Republic is considered the world’s leader in per capita beer drinking with 128 litres of beer drunk per head of population in 2023.
Beer is still cheaper than water in some restaurants and many pubs in Prague’s historic centre offer local lager for less than €3 a pint.
Czech Association of Hotels & Restaurants President Vaclav Starek welcomed the decision.
“Trips to the centre in search of beer have been a problem for local people and for other tourists too,” he told Agence France-Presse.
“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.”
Last year, Amsterdam launched an online campaign dissuading loutish British tourists visiting the city for pub crawls and bucks trips and has now imposed a river cruise and new hotel construction limit.
Venice and Barcelona have also waged war on mass tourism by limiting tour group sizes and introducing a €5 tourist tax trial and banning apartment rentals by 2028 respectively.