Brit stag-do hotspot announces pub crawl BAN in major crackdown on boozy trips as city aims for ‘more cultured’ visitors
TOURISTS seeking booze-fuelled nights in the capital city of the Czech Republic will have to look elsewhere as Prague bans pub crawls.
On Monday, city councillors announced that organized drinking tours by travel agencies will be a thing of the past as Prague seeks "more cultured" tourists.
The ban on organised drinking tours between 10 pm and 6 pm targets those travelling to the city for cheap, booze-filled revelry, that often involves strippers and other forms of entertainment.
One travel agency in the city offers tourists a "strip and steak combo" as well as a "spicy lesbian show in the mud," according to .
In addition to this, grooms on a stag do can have an "Al Capone dinner" during which they get fake-arrested and for €360 an hour they can hire a "dwarf" to be tied to a member of the group.
Prague is "seeking a more cultured, wealthier tourist … not one who comes for a short time only to get drunk," Deputy Mayor Jiří Pospíšil said.
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"It will not be possible to have guided tours between 10 pm and 6 am," Prague's deputy mayor Zdenek Hrib told reporters.
'GENOCIDE' OF LOCAL LIFE
It comes following complaints by locals about their safety and the noise from rowdy tourists who have overindulged at the city's pubs and breweries for which it is well known.
Prague is the top city in the world with the most pubs per person with 47.87 pubs per 100,000 people, according to
In some restaurants, especially those in the historic centre, tourists will find that the local lager is cheaper than water at less than £2.50 a pint.
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Earlier this year, one resident of the city took efforts to ban drunken tourists to the extreme by staging a ten-day hunger strike.
Stepan Kichta who lives in the old town claimed that the "chronic noise" had severely damaged his health and that such tourism has caused a "genocide of ordinary resident life in the centre of Prague."
Even leaders in the city's tourism have supported the move with Vaclav Starek, the head of the Czech Association of Hotels and Restaurants saying it will not damage profit.
"Trips to the centre in search of beer have been a problem for local people and for other tourists too," he said.
"I don’t think this will hurt our sales. Nobody will be banned from going to a pub but these nightly organised crawls … are nothing we would need."
However, stag party providers in the UK are not convinced that the ban will make much difference.
"It’s a bit of a half-hearted ban to stop pub crawls from 10 pm," Simon Old, Prague Specialist for two of the UK’s leading stag and hen party providers, and said.
"Whilst they’re well within their rights to try and curb anti-social behaviour, people will just do their own pub crawls or do them earlier on.
"Being a destination that has profited for years on its reputation for being a bit of a party city, it seems like they’re trying to have their cake and eat it with this.
"I don’t think it will deter stags and hens from heading to Prague at all."
'STAY AWAY'
Prague is not the only European city to start launching crackdowns on such tourism.
Stag-do hotspots cracking down on boozy tourists
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Munich, Germany
- Budapest, Hungary
- Llucmajor, Palma, and Calvia (Magaluf) in Majorca, Spain
- San Antonio in Ibiza, Spain
Last year, Amsterdam told young British men to "stay away" in adverts that would pop up when certain terms were used on search engines.
Adverts warning of how excessive alcohol and drug taking can lead to health problems and criminal records alerted users who searched terms like, "stag party Amsterdam," and "pub crawl Amsterdam."
Dutch officials have also targeted tourists with quizzes asking them what they would like to do once in Amsterdam.
If they answer certain questions about public drinking and drug taking or guided tours of the windows in the Red Light District, they are told "That is going to be a hassle. It is forbidden."
Amsterdam and other European cities including Munich, Budapest and Prague have also banned "beer bikes" in a bid to clamp down on boozy tourism and "messy" weekends.
These nightly organised crawls … are nothing we would need.
Vaclav Starek
Meanwhile, the popular Spanish islands of Ibiza and Majorca have also enforced alcohol bans between certain hours in stag-do and tourist hotspots known for excessive drinking.
The sale of alcohol is banned between 9:30 pm and 8 am in "excessive tourism" areas like Palma and Magaluf in Majorca and San Antonio in Ibiza.
Party boats are also banned from sailing within one mile of these areas and cannot pick up or disembark passengers.
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To ensure the new laws are enforced, the Balearic government will spend up to £13.7 million on the ban on excessive alcohol consumption and related security measures.
Drunken tourists could be fined between £645 and £2,580 as the mayor of Palma Jaime Martínez sets his sights on "correcting uncivil attitudes."
