Prague is collapsing under the weight of drunk tourists, reports The Guardian

For Prague residents, especially those who live, work, or often travel through the city center, the problem is certainly not a new one. While Prague, like other major European destinations including Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Venice, is facing issues of over-tourism, the Czech capital is also combating a unique breed of tourist.

Between 2012 and 2018, the Czech capital saw a nearly 30% rise in the number of tourists that visit the city, which now sits north of eight million people per year. Worryingly, a large number of people – most visibly, perhaps, stag parties from the UK – visit Prague as a form of ‘alcotourism,’ which involves getting drunk on the cheap while seeing the city on the side.

Prague tour agencies have taken advantage of this kind of tourism, and offer pub crawls that involve heavy drinking while obnoxiously touring the city’s landmarks. One became the subject of heated controversy for handing their patrons markers to scribble on the city landmark Lennon Wall.

“Fuck pub crawls, fuck pub crawls,” local photojournalist Eugen Kukla told Tait.

“It’s an expression of my personal feelings, a buildup of frustration over a long period of time, years and years and years. It’s been going on for 10 or 15 years – but it’s got worse.”

Kukla is not alone in his concern.

“Ever since the wall became part of the tourist and Baedeker circuit, it has become a bit of a nightmare, and in the last five years it has become unbearable. A lot of drunk tourists are coming and acting like they have conquered the place rather than just visiting. They have no respect for the fact that there are people living here – and it’s making people reconsider whether they want to continue living in a place where their families have been for generations.”

While Prague’s city councillors, including new mayor Zdeněk Hřib, have vowed to curb alcotourism – installing a new night mayor to cooperate with late-night bars and pub crawls, and preparing ad campaigns to inform incoming tourists of local regulations – tour organizers that promote alcotourism in Prague are working just as fast.