The Observer - 25.08.2019

• The Observer
  20 25.08.19 Special report

Venice

Th e canal city , already under ever-

present threat from natural fl oods,

is considering radical steps to stem

the deluge of humanity streaming

in every year: a minimum entry

fee, starting at €2.50 and rising to

between €5 and €10 during peak

periods.

Th e measure has been proposed

to limit visitor numbers that have

risen to 30 million a year , many of

them day-trippers who – according

to some city offi cials – stop only

to take pictures. It is not the fi rst

punitive anti-visitor tax that has

been fl oated. Authorities previously

threatened to levy fi nes of up to

€500 on tourists pulling wheeled

suitcases over the cobbled streets,

the noise of which irritated locals.

Th e penalty was never implemented.

Barcelona

Anguish over the eff ects of tourism

has reached such a pitch in the

Over-tourism: how cities fi ght back

responsible for the Czech capital’s
historic tourist district – now under
strain as never before from a bur-
geoning infl ux of foreign visitors.
On a night when thousands of
Czechs marched through the city
marking the anniversary of the
Soviet-led invasion on 21 August
1968 that crushed the liberal Prague
Spring in communist Czechoslovakia,
tourists from locations as varied as
Australia, New Zealand, Germany,
France, Brazil, Belgium and Armenia
roamed the streets on a different mis-
sion – to have fun and get drunk.
The spectacle was graphic evi-
dence that “ over-tourism ”, a phe-
nomenon more commonly associated
with destinations such as Barcelona,
Amsterdam, Venice and Edinburgh,
has arrived in Prague – a city that was
all but sealed off to western visitors
until 1989 when the velvet revolution
swept the former communist regime
from power.
In the years since, a rising tide
of visitors has fl ooded in, up from
2.5 million in the year 2002, to just
under 8 million last year, drawn by
Prague’s reputation as home to stun-
ning baroque and gothic architectural
gems – and cheap beer. Numbers this
year are forecast to reach just under
9 million.
The trend is transforming Prague
and risks pushing out long-term
inhabitants of the city centre – his-
torically considered a residential
district – and turning it into a tour-
ist-only zone. That prospect was
called “humiliating” by Jan Štern ,
who took offi ce this year as the city’s
fi rst “ nightlife mayor ” and has nego-
tiated with bar owners trying to per-
suade them not to cooperate with pub
crawls and to enforce policies prohib-
iting outdoor noise that would make
conditions more tolerable for neigh-
bouring residents.
“It’s important that we don’t give
up the historic city centre, which is
our most valuable legacy, and not let it
become a dead zone that’s just a back-
ground for nightlife and a cheap type
of tourism,” said Štern.
Now the authorities – alarmed at
that possibility and the city’s grow-
ing reputation as a location of cheap
booze and easy fun – are pledging a
harder line with miscreant visitors,
some of whom stand accused of dis-
respecting Prague and its inhabitants.
“There could in the future be more
action taken by the police. We want
to get that message out,” said one
municipal official. “There will be
harder treatment against tourists
and more harsh action when they are
making noise. There are even voices

‘Some tourists are

apologetic, but the

guides have been

aggressive and

confrontational’

calling to use riot squads. When

there are 150 people on a pub crawl

there needs to be a lot of policemen

asking for documents. If anyone is

drunk they’ll be taken to alcohol sta-

tions and things could be really hard

for them.”

O

ver-tourism, as

defi ned by three aca-

demics last year, is

“the excessive growth

of visitors leading

to overcrowding in

areas where residents suffer the con-

sequences, which have enforced per-

manent changes to their lifestyles,

access to amenities and general

wellbeing”. That defi nition by Joseph

Cheer , Claudio Milano and Marina

Novelli , writing on the Conversation

website , aptly sums up the reality

of many European cities that have

reaped the rewards – but also borne

the brunt – of the explosion in cheap

fl ights and Airbnb-style accommoda-

tion that recent years have brought.

But it is particularly pertinent to

Prague, according to Pavel Čižinský,

mayor of Prague 1 , who has vowed

to transform the city’s approach by

cracking down on pub crawls and

limiting alcohol serving times. He is

also promoting information drives

to encourage tourists to visit more

peripheral areas instead of over-

visited attractions such as Charles

RIGHT

Eugen Kukla and

his wife, Nadia,

whose lives have

been turned into

a nightmare by

the pub crawls.

Photograph by

Robert Tait/the

Observer

ABOVE

The Lennon

Wall, defaced by

tourist spraying.

AP

Continued from page 19

seen in the spread of cheap souve-

nir shops, massage parlours painted

in out-of-place garish colours – an

example of what offi cials denounce

as “visual smog” – and the dancers

in giant panda suits that proliferate

in Old Town Square , exploiting local

busking laws. That practice will be

illegal from next month.

But it is the commercial pub crawls

and other alcohol-related “tours”

that are altering the city’s previously

tranquil character most dramatically

and driving an increasing number

of long-term residents out, leaving

vacant properties to be rented out.

Beer bikes, offering tours to up to

a dozen people at a time while they

drink unlimited quantities of famous

Czech brews to a soundtrack of loud

music, have gained notoriety as noisy

nuisances, blocking traffi c and dis-

turbing passersby. A council attempt

to outlaw them is currently being con-

tested by a local microbrewery on the

grounds that it is “discriminatory”.

Also notorious are walking tours

in Malá Strana, near Prague castle,

which often culminate in visits to the

Lennon Wall , a famous protest site

during communist times that has

since become a place of free expres-

sion for would-be graffi ti artists, but

is now being defaced with mindless

spraying done at the urging of guides.

After offering unlimited beer,

guides have been known to push cli-

Bridge and the historic ninth-cen-

tury castle.

The centre of Prague “is losing the

quality of normal life,” said Čižinský,

a lifelong city resident who grew up

near the Jewish quarter. “The centre is

becoming a goldmine where you earn

a lot of money, but it is not a place

for living. It is a signifi cant and cru-

cial problem.

“Too many people are coming just

for a very small number of purposes,

and buildings, and those who want to

make profi ts from the presence of the

tourists worsen the situation.”

The signs of such tourist-driven

commercialisation are everywhere,