Excellent piece, so many great points you touched on.
I get why city centre touristy places charge more and as long as they're transparent, I'm fine with that. Wherever I go, I try to go where the locals go for a proper meal and I'll ask people for advice. I was told U Glaubiců in Prague is good, and when I ate there in April and found it excellent and decent value for money.
I always ask for a local language menu when travelling - not necessarily for the prices, but because it's fun to experiment and learn a bit of the language, especially with food. There are going to be similarities between different languages anyway, it's easy enough to figure out. It also helps that I'm an adventurous eater and will eat almost anything.
In Italy there are quite a few museums with a different price list for locals, EU nationals and 'the rest of the world.' I remember travelling there while living in Ukraine, where I was making a Ukrainian salary, which is not high at all, and I thought it was kind of unfair when there's one price for everyone at all Ukrainian museums, and they are super cheap for foreigners. And of course, most museums in London are free.
Thanks for reading and commenting! See, here's the problem though. I had to Google U Glaubiců (rings a bell but never been there) because while the pub looks pretty good, I'm very rarely in that area to begin with as someone who lives here.
With museums, I like the thing they do in some places when they have free entry one day a week. It seems like a good compromise. Here it's only on some national holidays, but I'll take it, it's not like I frequent museums that much.
Actually, I shouldn’t complain - I get to go to all museums and many special events for free in Vienna. I have a Culture Pass which gives me free entry to everything. I got that at first for being a Ukrainian refugee and now I get one because I’m an unemployed struggling and starving creative and they want to at least make sure I’m nourished spiritually 😂
This is an interesting piece! I am writing about the business of tourism and the unfortunate reality for a lot of businesses in high traffic tourist areas is that their costs (especially rent) are often higher than elsewhere. The broad trends lately have been such that higher end travel has been stronger than budget travel, so the less price sensitive demand definitely exists. I can’t blame the business owners for trying to maximize their revenue, but to your point it comes at the cost of accessibility for others not willing or able to pay the premium prices. I think you’re right that there should be efforts to maintain access to infrastructure and cultural sites, but unfortunately I don’t think there’s a practical solution to the expensive coffee in a prime location.
Thank you so much for this comment! I didn’t consider this perspective much so it made me do some more research and thinking. Came to the conclusion that rent prices of these prime location properties are the easiest thing to lower or regulate, especially since at least here in Prague, the owner of many of these historical buildings is the city of Prague itself. Sadly what happens is they mostly let potential renters bid which leads to what we have now because scams make the most money. Also, if these were luxury venues I guess it would still be exclusionary but at least somehow justified. But the space is taken mostly by places selling the most mid pub food to people who don’t know how it should taste or how much it should cost + other annoying tourist trap gimmicks.
I didn’t realize the government owns the spots, definitely adds a wrinkle! I always make a point to look at the food people are served as I walk past these kind of places and I often cringe seeing how basic / sad it looks especially for the price
This is a really well thought out and thought provoking piece. I especially agree with this part "I’m only in favor of dual pricing when it helps create a better local experience rather than just making the lives of visitors harder." My husband is Turkish, and in Turkey most historical sites have a "local" price for those with a Turkish ID card/passport and a "tourist" price. I never saw this as an exploitative practice and thought it was important that locals are not priced out of their own historic places. It will be interesting to see how these things evolve in the future. Unfortunately, I think there are probably many more examples similar to what you describe in Prague, I'm not sure what the answer to this is, but I do think these situations are important for travellers to be aware of.
Thanks for the comment, glad you liked it! I really hope ‘Pragueification’ doesn’t spread to even more places but with the current climate around tourism, I fear it’s inevitable :’)
Thoughtful piece, Fialka. I like the idea of allowing gov’t run services (parks, transport, etc.) to charge a higher price than private establishments. It add a bit of regulation and hopefully then revenues can be utilized for good and driven back to the community
Really enjoyed how you approached this in such a thoughtful balanced way. Also this make me chuckle - 'I say all that to give the Brazilian açaí warriors a warning'
This is such a fascinating piece, thank you for sharing. The way you describe what has happened to Prague, with locals not even being able to enjoy their own city centre due to tourism, is really sad.
How long have you been living in Prague? Super curious to know if you feel like you’ve seen these effects become worse over time, or if it has been like this for a long while now
Thanks for the comment! I've been in Prague for around 11 years now (wow i'm old), moved here for uni and stayed. But Prague has been extremely touristy for as long as I can remember, even when I used to visit before moving here. It really is one of the OG overtouristed European cities, mostly because it's "cheap" to visit and ball out here :")
Ahhhh this is great!!! It is such a nuanced topic, tough to broach, but you did it so well. The completely different menu just for tourists that you got in Lisbon is wild!! It is now making me wonder how many times restaurants have given that to me without me batting an eye LOL
Thank you so much! Hahaha not to sound alarming but I heard that in Lisbon especially it’s super widespread 😅 also this was in 2017 but I remember that the only reason I said something was that i wanted to eat a specific dish that wasn’t on the tourist menu + I was broke, otherwise i would probably have rolled with it 🥲
Firstly, I love travelling the world through words and this was so well-worded. I just wanted to say how much I appreciated your post on tourist pricing and local spaces. I loved how you combined personal anecdotes, legal context, and thoughtful analysis to unpack a topic that’s often dismissed or oversimplified. I am now thinking about how I can be more mindful of the spaces I enter, the prices I pay, and the ways I contribute to, or unintentionally take away from, the local experience.
Someone should've written that long time ago! Great read.
This is a sad reality of many underdeveloped countries. In Egypt, even if you are precieved to be from a certain class, the price changes. It's not only through local or citizen lenses, the admission fee/ticket is tripled in local attractions, museums, and the like which are set by the government.
Some see it justified if the country's economy is dependent on the influx of tourists and their well-spent money.
really interesting!! i don’t really have much experience of this in Europe, but it’s been on my mind a lot in southeast Asia - and although there are scams about, a lot of it is very blatant with “foreigner price” clearly labelled. it makes me laugh but i’m always in favour of it. i can’t dispute the difference between british currency and thai currency for example, and when a lot of the locals have never left their village, i know the fact that i’m even in their country indicates i have a certain amount of money to have been able to get myself there. if tourists are going to impact a place, it makes sense they should pay for the privilege of being there, especially when so many tourists these days are just there for a photoshoot anyway. definitely a lot of nuance though
Thank you for reading! I actually don’t remember much from how this is around Asia but my bf is in Sri Lanka right now and has the same experience with blatant foreigner prices. I usually like to find places where everyone gets treated equally when it comes to food (because the food tends to be better lol) and don’t mind paying the tourist price for entrance fees etc. My worry is really what I say in the article - if overcharging tourists is normalized and if enough of them come, there comes a point where it doesn’t make sense business-wise to serve locals at their reduced prices at all. That’s how it is here in Prague and it’s been like that for so long that everyone now thinks it’s normal that we can’t afford to hang around the city center which is quite sad.
Excellent piece, so many great points you touched on.
I get why city centre touristy places charge more and as long as they're transparent, I'm fine with that. Wherever I go, I try to go where the locals go for a proper meal and I'll ask people for advice. I was told U Glaubiců in Prague is good, and when I ate there in April and found it excellent and decent value for money.
I always ask for a local language menu when travelling - not necessarily for the prices, but because it's fun to experiment and learn a bit of the language, especially with food. There are going to be similarities between different languages anyway, it's easy enough to figure out. It also helps that I'm an adventurous eater and will eat almost anything.
In Italy there are quite a few museums with a different price list for locals, EU nationals and 'the rest of the world.' I remember travelling there while living in Ukraine, where I was making a Ukrainian salary, which is not high at all, and I thought it was kind of unfair when there's one price for everyone at all Ukrainian museums, and they are super cheap for foreigners. And of course, most museums in London are free.
Thanks for reading and commenting! See, here's the problem though. I had to Google U Glaubiců (rings a bell but never been there) because while the pub looks pretty good, I'm very rarely in that area to begin with as someone who lives here.
With museums, I like the thing they do in some places when they have free entry one day a week. It seems like a good compromise. Here it's only on some national holidays, but I'll take it, it's not like I frequent museums that much.
Actually, I shouldn’t complain - I get to go to all museums and many special events for free in Vienna. I have a Culture Pass which gives me free entry to everything. I got that at first for being a Ukrainian refugee and now I get one because I’m an unemployed struggling and starving creative and they want to at least make sure I’m nourished spiritually 😂
This is an interesting piece! I am writing about the business of tourism and the unfortunate reality for a lot of businesses in high traffic tourist areas is that their costs (especially rent) are often higher than elsewhere. The broad trends lately have been such that higher end travel has been stronger than budget travel, so the less price sensitive demand definitely exists. I can’t blame the business owners for trying to maximize their revenue, but to your point it comes at the cost of accessibility for others not willing or able to pay the premium prices. I think you’re right that there should be efforts to maintain access to infrastructure and cultural sites, but unfortunately I don’t think there’s a practical solution to the expensive coffee in a prime location.
Thank you so much for this comment! I didn’t consider this perspective much so it made me do some more research and thinking. Came to the conclusion that rent prices of these prime location properties are the easiest thing to lower or regulate, especially since at least here in Prague, the owner of many of these historical buildings is the city of Prague itself. Sadly what happens is they mostly let potential renters bid which leads to what we have now because scams make the most money. Also, if these were luxury venues I guess it would still be exclusionary but at least somehow justified. But the space is taken mostly by places selling the most mid pub food to people who don’t know how it should taste or how much it should cost + other annoying tourist trap gimmicks.
I didn’t realize the government owns the spots, definitely adds a wrinkle! I always make a point to look at the food people are served as I walk past these kind of places and I often cringe seeing how basic / sad it looks especially for the price
This is a really well thought out and thought provoking piece. I especially agree with this part "I’m only in favor of dual pricing when it helps create a better local experience rather than just making the lives of visitors harder." My husband is Turkish, and in Turkey most historical sites have a "local" price for those with a Turkish ID card/passport and a "tourist" price. I never saw this as an exploitative practice and thought it was important that locals are not priced out of their own historic places. It will be interesting to see how these things evolve in the future. Unfortunately, I think there are probably many more examples similar to what you describe in Prague, I'm not sure what the answer to this is, but I do think these situations are important for travellers to be aware of.
Thanks for the comment, glad you liked it! I really hope ‘Pragueification’ doesn’t spread to even more places but with the current climate around tourism, I fear it’s inevitable :’)
Thoughtful piece, Fialka. I like the idea of allowing gov’t run services (parks, transport, etc.) to charge a higher price than private establishments. It add a bit of regulation and hopefully then revenues can be utilized for good and driven back to the community
cheers! i feel like utilizing the revenue for good is sometimes where the whole thing falls apart but we can hope!
Really enjoyed how you approached this in such a thoughtful balanced way. Also this make me chuckle - 'I say all that to give the Brazilian açaí warriors a warning'
thank you so much for the feedback! someone has to warn them i guess :D
This is such a fascinating piece, thank you for sharing. The way you describe what has happened to Prague, with locals not even being able to enjoy their own city centre due to tourism, is really sad.
How long have you been living in Prague? Super curious to know if you feel like you’ve seen these effects become worse over time, or if it has been like this for a long while now
Thanks for the comment! I've been in Prague for around 11 years now (wow i'm old), moved here for uni and stayed. But Prague has been extremely touristy for as long as I can remember, even when I used to visit before moving here. It really is one of the OG overtouristed European cities, mostly because it's "cheap" to visit and ball out here :")
Ahhhh this is great!!! It is such a nuanced topic, tough to broach, but you did it so well. The completely different menu just for tourists that you got in Lisbon is wild!! It is now making me wonder how many times restaurants have given that to me without me batting an eye LOL
Thank you so much! Hahaha not to sound alarming but I heard that in Lisbon especially it’s super widespread 😅 also this was in 2017 but I remember that the only reason I said something was that i wanted to eat a specific dish that wasn’t on the tourist menu + I was broke, otherwise i would probably have rolled with it 🥲
Firstly, I love travelling the world through words and this was so well-worded. I just wanted to say how much I appreciated your post on tourist pricing and local spaces. I loved how you combined personal anecdotes, legal context, and thoughtful analysis to unpack a topic that’s often dismissed or oversimplified. I am now thinking about how I can be more mindful of the spaces I enter, the prices I pay, and the ways I contribute to, or unintentionally take away from, the local experience.
Someone should've written that long time ago! Great read.
This is a sad reality of many underdeveloped countries. In Egypt, even if you are precieved to be from a certain class, the price changes. It's not only through local or citizen lenses, the admission fee/ticket is tripled in local attractions, museums, and the like which are set by the government.
Some see it justified if the country's economy is dependent on the influx of tourists and their well-spent money.
Thank you! You’re right and thanks for bringing this up, this has a completely new level to it in places with more negotiable prices for sure!
really interesting!! i don’t really have much experience of this in Europe, but it’s been on my mind a lot in southeast Asia - and although there are scams about, a lot of it is very blatant with “foreigner price” clearly labelled. it makes me laugh but i’m always in favour of it. i can’t dispute the difference between british currency and thai currency for example, and when a lot of the locals have never left their village, i know the fact that i’m even in their country indicates i have a certain amount of money to have been able to get myself there. if tourists are going to impact a place, it makes sense they should pay for the privilege of being there, especially when so many tourists these days are just there for a photoshoot anyway. definitely a lot of nuance though
Thank you for reading! I actually don’t remember much from how this is around Asia but my bf is in Sri Lanka right now and has the same experience with blatant foreigner prices. I usually like to find places where everyone gets treated equally when it comes to food (because the food tends to be better lol) and don’t mind paying the tourist price for entrance fees etc. My worry is really what I say in the article - if overcharging tourists is normalized and if enough of them come, there comes a point where it doesn’t make sense business-wise to serve locals at their reduced prices at all. That’s how it is here in Prague and it’s been like that for so long that everyone now thinks it’s normal that we can’t afford to hang around the city center which is quite sad.
makes so much sense, you’re right that’s really sad :(