Czech Republic Fed Up with Drunken Tourists: Prague Bans Mass Pub Crawls

The Prague City Council has banned mass visits to pubs organised by travel companies and set aside a specific time for them to suppress ‘destructive behaviour’ and drunken brawls among tourists. 

 ‘Unreasonable consumption of alcohol and aggressive behaviour associated with pub crawls can create the impression of a lack of culture in the community, reduce the sense of safety and ... can negatively affect the perception of the municipality by tourists, potential investors and citizens themselves,’ the city's submission says.

For many years, Prague has been a popular destination for stag parties and young people looking for cheap drinks, but these people ‘who come to the city for a short time to get drunk’ do not bring enough to Prague.

Obviously, tourists will not be prohibited from visiting several pubs in one evening, but it will be out of the question to do so in organised groups. Previously, many tour operators offered bar visits, but now the city has decided to no longer allow such ‘excursions’ from 10pm to 6am.

The representative organisation of the Czech retail sector welcomes the ban on bar visits. ‘Finding beer in the city centre has become a problem for residents,’ explains its president Vaclav Starek, who, however, does not expect the measure to affect alcohol sales. ‘No one will be banned from going to the pub, but we can do without these organised nightly visits.’

The Czech Republic has the highest per capita consumption of beer in the world, thanks in part to foreign visitors.  In 2023, 128 litres of beer were consumed per capita. In some restaurants and bars in Prague's Old Town, beer is cheaper than water.

In the summer, an angry crowd of locals in Spain soaked tourists with children's water pistols on the streets of Barcelona. The Spaniards were protesting against excessive tourism.