Prague battles with the consequences of overtourism

It's just before 6 p.m. on a fine fall weekday evening in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic (Czechia). A crowd has gathered near the Old Town Hall in the city center. It looks as if a huge protest march is about to get underway.

But appearances are deceptive. The thousands of people standing close together have not come to demonstrate, but are waiting for Prague's world-famous medieval astronomical clock to strike the hour.

When it does, the tourists — who descend on Prague from all over the world — will whip out their cell phones to capture the popular spectacle, which includes a golden cockerel, a skeleton striking the time and a procession of figures representing the 12 apostles.

"It's wonderful; it was really worth the wait; a fantastic experience," says George, a 40-year-old tourist from Chicago. Prague is one of five stops on his two-week European tour.

Illusion of infinite space

Elsewhere in the city center, more tourists are standing in a long line outside Prague's municipal library. They are not here to admire the building, which houses one of the largest working libraries in the country, or to peruse the bookshelves.

They have come to see the Idiom book tower, an installation by Slovak artist Matej Kren comprising about 8,000 books in the entrance hall. Inside the tower of books are two mirrors that create the illusion of an infinite space.

The installation, which is also known as the "Column of Knowledge," has been here since 1998. For many years, it went largely unnoticed by tourists, with just the occasional visitor stopping to take a look inside.

The 'Lonely Planet' effect

But when it was mentioned in a popular English-language travel guide, everything changed. It soon appeared in many other guides and began cropping up on social media.

For library staff and visitors, it meant an end to the usual peaceful, quiet library atmosphere.

"We don't know what we're supposed to do: We are a public amenity; we can't charge an admission fee or limit tourist access. But it is sometimes unbearable," says one female librarian to an elderly lady who is having difficulty making her way through the crowd of tourists.

An end to organized pub crawls

These are just two of many instances where the Old Town of Prague is struggling with the impact of overtourism.

Also known as the Golden City, the Czech capital is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, described in many guidebooks as the continent's most beautiful city.

Recently, however, the city authorities decided to crack down on one of the worst manifestations of overtourism plaguing the capital: organized evening pub crawls, which have been available in the city for several years.

Visitors pay a fixed price to visit numerous pubs in a group and drink as much as they want. Such tours are now banned between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

"I think that in doing so, we have at last brought some nighttime relief to city residents. Prague is a place for anyone who behaves decently and considerately," city councilor Jiri Pospisil told DW.

Many city center residents are delighted with the ban, which came into force in mid-October.

"In summer in particular, I often had to call the police at 3 a.m. because of these groups. When a group of 30 drunk people settles down beneath your window in the middle of the road, it's unbearable," says Tomas Vich, an architect who lives on the top floor of a building behind the Church of Our Lady before Tyn in the Old Town.

Fewer Czech citizens live in the city center

But it wasn't just the rowdy tourists crawling the pubs that bothered Vich. He also has a problem with Airbnb.

Renting out apartments to tourists in Prague via the Internet has taken on alarming proportions: Very few Czech citizens now live in the center of the city.

"The worst thing is not that the stairwell is full of vomit from drunken tourists," Vich tells DW. "It's the fact that people you know nothing about are wandering around a house where families live with small children."

Law not currently enforced

While it is prohibited by law in the Czech Republic to accommodate tourists in apartments, the state does not prosecute those who do so.

Apart from the above-mentioned impacts, there are other negative aspects of overtourism.

Vital economic sector

"We are aware that these accommodation companies are making the housing situation in Prague worse," admits Councilor Pospisil. Nevertheless, Prague has not yet decided to crack down on short-term lets to tourists.

The reason for this is the massive importance of the tourism sector for the Czech economy, and for Prague in particular. The state-run CzechTourism agency recorded tourism revenues of about €7 billion ($7.36 billion) last year.

This, together with the fact that about a quarter of a million people are employed in tourism, means that this sector is even more important to the country's economy than agriculture.

Last year, 22 million foreign tourists visited the Czech Republic and over 8 million of them visited the capital – and numbers are up this year. Most tourists come from neighboring countries, but the number of overseas visitors this year is also approaching pre-pandemic levels.

Some experts prefer not to use the term "overtourism." They say that only a few places — like Prague's historic Old Town — are affected by it.

"About 1.3 million people live in Prague and about 8 million visit the city every year. So, the figures are really not that bad," Karel Vyrut, a well-known Czech tourism expert, recently told the Czech national broadcaster. "Uncontrolled short-term lets are a much bigger problem. Seven out of 10 people who live in Prague's Old Town are tourists."

This article was originally published in German.