This metropolis isn’t any lager hoppy go fortunate.
Prague has banned organized nighttime pub crawls, as the favored after-hours pastime raked in money for bars however wreaked havoc for residents and native authorities.
The pub crawls drew over 7 million guests to the Czech capital final 12 months — and introduced loud noises and loads of road rubbish in tow.
“We don’t need to assist low-cost alco-tourism that’s sadly nonetheless fairly frequent in Prague,” stated Adam Zabranský, a metropolis council member who drafted the ban proposal.
The measure — which matches into impact in November — will probably be enforced by metropolis police between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Tour organizers who violate the ban will face fines of as much as 100,000 koruna, or $4,300.
The all-out ban got here after earlier efforts to take care of the town’s noise, waste and reputational considerations failed.
In 2019, officers even appointed an evening mayor whose job was to attenuate the impression of nightlife on residents.
“It will be nice if the house owners of the institutions take their share of accountability,” Zabranský lamented.
“As it’s, the residents within the busy areas face the destructive penalties whereas the bar house owners taking part within the pub crawls make revenue and don’t care in regards to the issues.”
The ban can be half of a bigger drive to advertise cultural tourism within the hopes of attracting guests who keep for longer than one wild weekend.
“Individuals coming to expertise tradition behave in a different way than those that arrive to drink all weekend lengthy,” Zabranský famous.
An company that organizes pub crawls in Prague, nonetheless, denounced the ban as a “populist transfer.”
“(The pub crawl) was very good,” German vacationer Melissa Haine stated of her expertise. “I feel it’s very humorous, and also you get to know new folks.”
One other group, the Drunken Monkey, claimed that the ban ”makes a mistake that may make the scenario even worse.”
Organizers and pub crawl guides assist the town and police preserve folks quiet and implement the foundations on noise and others,” they stated in a press release.
“With out the guides, the issues with noise will change into even worse,” they added.
The Drunken Monkey stated that it had not been fined on account of noise since its operations began in 2011, and no complaints about noise had been ever logged on the streets it makes use of.
Whereas pub crawls are off the menu, guests are nonetheless inspired to pattern Prague’s signature native beer — in any case, the nation is already the world’s largest client of the brew per capita.
“Czechia has distinctive potential in beer tourism, due to its lengthy historical past of brewing, distinctive breweries and the present development of experiential and sustainable tourism,” stated František Reismüller, the pinnacle of the nation’s vacationer authority.
“Our objective is to point out that beer journey might be not solely about tasting nice beer, but additionally about studying about Czech tradition, traditions and historical past.”
With Submit wires
