In October, Prague city councillors confirmed that they had banned night-time pub crawls organised by travel agencies because the city wanted to target “more cultured” tourists. It was a widely-expected move to bar guided tours between 10pm and 6am, with deputy mayor Jri Pospisil stating that Prague city hall was “seeking a more cultured, wealthier tourist...not one who comes for a short time only to get drunk”.
Prague is not the first European capital to start trying to influence the type of tourist visiting in a strategy that is increasingly prioritising a perceived quality over quantity approach that is also aiming to balance the economic benefits of tourism with city livability.