An autumn weekday, shortly before six in the afternoon, in the center of Prague a huge crowd of people can be seen, who seem to have gathered for a giant demonstration . In reality, however, these are tourists waiting for the famous medieval clock of the Prague Town Hall to strike six o'clock. It is among the main attractions of the Czech capital.
Another huge line winds up outside the nearby city library – but not because tourists are interested in the books in the largest Czech library, but because they want to photograph a sculpture by Slovak artist Matej Kren, which consists of eight thousand books, between which two mirrors are placed. This creates the illusion of endless space. When the sculpture appeared on the pages of the famous tourist guide "Lonely Planet", the library staff found themselves in an unusual situation. “We don't know what to do, we are a government institution, we can't charge them entry or stop tourists. But sometimes it's unbearable”, says one of the librarians.
End of alcohol tourism
These are just two examples of how Prague suffers from overtourism. The Czech capital is one of the most visited cities in Europe. Many tourist guides consider it even the most beautiful city on the Old Continent. Now, however, local authorities have taken action to put an end to at least one of the most annoying things about over-tourism - organized pub crawls. This is now prohibited between 10pm and 6am.
“I believe that we will finally be able to ensure the peaceful sleep of the people in our city. "Prague is a place for everyone who behaves decently and is careful," says Jiri Pospišil, former MP and current municipal councilor in Prague, who is also responsible for tourism.
The ban on organized tours of pubs and bars, which was imposed in mid-October, pleased many residents of the Czech capital. “Especially in the summer, I often have to call the police because of these groups of people at three in the morning. When a company of thirty drunks stands in the middle of the street or under your windows, it's intolerable”, says Tomas Vih, an architect who lives in a building near the Old Town.
Fewer and fewer local people live in the city center
Noisy companies with tourists, who are often drunk, are not the only thing that bothers Vih. His other problem is with the short-term accommodation platform “Airbnb”. The number of these apartments in Prague has reached appalling levels - fewer and fewer local people are living in the city center at all.”The worst thing is not drunken tourists throwing up on the stairs,” says Vih. “The worse thing is that in buildings where families with small children live, there are some people who we do not know walking around,”, he adds.
In the Czech Republic, it is forbidden by law to rent apartments to tourists on a short-term basis, but the state does not impose any fines on violators. There are other negative effects of this. “We know that these short-term rental apartments are hurting the real estate market in Prague,”, says Pospisil. However, the local authorities have not yet started to take measures against renting out apartments.
Important for the economy
The reason is that the tourism sector is extremely important for the Czech economy and especially for Prague. According to the state agency “Tourism in the Czech Republic” revenue from tourists in 2023 were equal to about seven billion euros. In addition, there are nearly half a million people working in tourism, which makes it more important to the Czech Republic than even agriculture.
Last year, 22 million foreign tourists spent the night in the Czech Republic, over eight million - in Prague. This year there will probably be even more. Most tourists come from nearby countries, but the number of tourists arriving from the US is gradually reaching pre-pandemic volumes.
Some experts don't want to talk about “extreme tourism” - according to them, only certain places suffer from this problem – for example the historic center of Prague. “About 1.3 million people live in Prague and nearly 8 million tourists visit the city every year. So the ratio is not so terrible”, Karel Virut, a popular Czech tourism expert, believes. “The problem is rather in the short-term rental of apartments, which is not controlled at all. Seven out of ten people who spend the night in Prague's Old Town are tourists, he says.
Author: Lubos Palata