Prague ban pub crawls: European city, popular for stag and hen dos, bans evening bar crawls to attract 'more cultured' tourists
Prague, a popular European city for stag-dos and a weekend away, has banned evening pub crawls to attract “more cultured” tourists.
The city’s deputy mayor, Zdenek Hrib, said on Monday (14 October) that all drinking tours organised by tourism providers between 10pm and 6am could no longer operate. Pub crawls have been banned at night by city councillors aiming to attract “more cultured” tourists to the Czech capital.
According to Jiri Pospisil, also deputy mayor for Prague, city hall is seeking a “more cultured, wealthier tourist”, not “one who comes for a short time only to get drunk”, reports Agence France-Presse. The city’s motion said: “Unreasonable alcohol consumption and disruptive behaviour associated with pub crawls can give the impression of a lack of culture in society, can reduce the sense of safety and … can have a negative impact on how the city is perceived by tourists, potential investors and residents themselves.”
The bars and nightclubs near Wenceslas Square are particularly popular with British tourists celebrating stag and hen dos. Mr Pospisil added that the guides “had no objections to the ban at all”.
It’s not Prague’s first attempt to reduce nightlife in the city. In May, a district council in Prague proposed that outrageous costumes worn by stag and hen party groups be banned to tackle overtourism. In the proposal, Prague 1 councillor Bronislava Sitár Baboráková, said the costumes “exceed generally acceptable social conventions” and negatively impact residents – particularly highlighting the effect on elderly people and children.
Other European cities have also introduced new rules to limit the impacts of mass tourism. Officials in Venice, Italy recently limited tour group sizes to 25 people and banned megaphones, while Barcelona’s mayor plans to end apartment rentals for tourists by 2028.