Brit Stag Parties in Prague Warned

Posted by David Whitley Aug 2, 2007

British Stag Parties

Last week I touched upon the curse of British stag parties infesting Riga, Latvia, but it seems as though that’s not the only place in which they’ve been getting up to no good.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Advice

A new campaign by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth office was launched today, backed up with figures about UK citizens getting up to mischief and being struck by disaster abroad. The Know Before You Go campaign is all about advice – trying to get Brits to plan ahead a bit more before jetting off to foreign climes.

Lost Passports in Czech Republic

One interesting statistic amongst the figures* was just how many British tourists are requiring consular assistance on trips to the Czech Republic. From an estimated 813,000 visits from British travellers, the British embassy in Prague had to deal with 445 missing passports being reported, and had to give ‘serious assistance’ in 845 cases. Compare that to the figures for France – 10,984,000 visits, 713 lost passports, 1,408 cases of ‘serious assistance’ – and it’s quite clear that the figures are disproportionate.

Stag and Hen Weekends in Prague

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this discrepancy is due, in a large part, to Prague’s reputation as Europe’s hen and stag party capital. While many tourists visit the city for its culture, heritage and architecture, a fair percentage are there for the cheap beer, strip clubs and nightlife. It seems as though this sector of the market could probably do with heeding the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice and making sure they’re better prepared. Oh, and they could probably do with cutting down on the little things like drunken fights, public urination and arguing with police officers too – that sort of thing doesn’t go down too well.

*To round the figures off, there were 36 arrests, 52 hospitalisations and 16 deaths amongst visitors to the Czech Republic from the UK. Not pretty reading, is it?