Officials counter warnings of dangers for Prague visitors
Czechs refute U.S. tourism report
On July 21, the U.S. State Department updated its information for tourists traveling to the Czech Republic. It warns against rising incidents of pickpocketing and street muggings. It also claims that incidents of violent crime are becoming more common in Prague.
“Travelers should be aware of the reported use of Rohypnol and other ‘date rape’ drugs in the Czech Republic,” the report said. “Caution should be used when accepting open drinks at bars or clubs.” American tourists are also being warned against cheating taxi drivers and being advised to pay special attention to their belongings while using public transport.
Tomio Okamura, spokesman for the Association of Tour Operators and Travel Agents of the Czech Republic, agrees with the evaluation and points out that tourists have already noted the growing security problems and have sought other destinations.
“Czech tourism is experiencing the largest crisis since the floods in 2002, and a solution is nowhere to be seen,” he said. “Maybe if we became a secure country overnight, tourists might come back. But that is just fiction. My own mother does not go to the movies anymore because she’d have to return alone after dark. Such a situation is unacceptable 19 years after the fall of communism.”However, government officials disagree with the U.S. report as well as Okamura’s grim assessment.
“The Czech Republic is among the safest countries in the world, and even the U.S. report admits that ‘the Czech Republic generally has a low crime rate,’ ” said Hynek Jordán, spokesman for the Regional Development Ministry. Jordán thinks tourists should be aware of risks before traveling to an unknown destination but should not be unnecessarily afraid.
“Tourists face the same dangers as they would visiting any other large city at home or in another country, and should behave accordingly. But there is nothing to be afraid of,” he said. To back his claim, Jordán cites the fact that Mercer ranks the Czech Republic 17th in the world with regard to safety and Prague ranks 45th out of 215 world cities.
Local police statistics also contradict the U.S. claims. “While Prague sees more criminality than other Czech cities, it is safe compared with other large European cities, and the situation is improving,” said Prague Police spokeswoman Eva Miklíková. The total crime rate has steadily dropped over the past five years, Miklíková added. In 2007, police registered 16,000 fewer crimes in Prague compared with 2002. Violent crime represents 3.1 percent of the total crime rate in Prague and has also dropped.
Last year, police registered only 1,180 incidents of theft and pickpocketing. “We are in contact with police forces in Vienna, Berlin, Budapest, Warsaw and other cities, and we can say that, while pickpocketing is a large problem in Prague, the situation is not as bad as it is elsewhere,” Miklíková said. “This year, we have managed to arrest several gangs specializing in pick pocketing.”As for the use of date rape drugs, police dismiss all accusations. Usage spread in the early 1990s but currently such cases are rare, with police records showing only 10 to 15 instances each year.
“It should be noted that it is almost solely used by ‘women of disrepute.’ We have no information that bar or restaurant personnel engage in such activities. The reporting in U.S. media is blown out of proportion. Tourists are not at risk from date rape drugs if they behave responsibly,” Miklíková said.Contradictory reports The latest numbers concerning tourism released Aug. 15 by the Czech Statistical Office do not point to any tourism crisis as Okamura said.
While the second quarter of 2008 saw a drop in tourists compared with the second quarter in 2007, it was only 0.1 percent, or 3,010 tourists. On the other hand, three-, four- and five-star hotels have seen a significant increase in guests while hostels and other accommodations recorded losses.
In the long term, Prague is attracting a growing number of tourists willing to pay more while students move farther east to cheaper destinations.Overall, Czech officials have been quick to tone down the U.S. report and do not expect it to have any impact on local tourism. “If American tourists took everything the State Department published seriously, they’d never travel anywhere,” Jordán said.
He further pointed out that, according to the country-specific information in the report, Slovakia is controlled by foreign mafias, trains in the United Kingdom are dangerous and, in France, withdrawing money from an ATM could lead to murder. “Other West European countries have lists that are five times longer than the brief warning the Czech Republic gets. This proves there is nothing to worry about. Honestly, we do not expect this warning to have any impact on tourist choices,” Jordán said.
Comments
Well, I'm a Czech, and I do not disagree with the US report. It surprised me by how accurate it was - I wouldn't have expected the US government to pay so much attention to the situation in a small and (from their point of view) remote European country. The taxi drivers cheating - that's one of the local embarassments. Pickpocketing - there's been warnings ("better safe than sorry") in every Prague public transport vehicle for years now. Broken roads - to an American, many of our roads would probably feel like used to be an artillery range, there's so many holes. After every winter freeze, it gets that much worse, and there's barely enough money for cheap, uneven patches. How embarassing. A lot of drivers here are a-holes, for sure. I guess most Europeans drive more "hurriedly" than Americans, after all, if you're driving a thousand miles, you can't really make it go too much faster by ignoring the speed limit. Also, police do not bust nearly as much as they should for road infractions. A lot of people think nothing will happen to them. Compared to neighboring Germany, our road laws and, more than that, their enforcement, are lax. They even mentioned that (often foreign) mafias own half the gambling houses - how astute. I know gambling's a gentleman's pastime in the US, but I'd definitely not go to a casino in the Czech Republic even if I had the money to do some serious damage to the pot. Not that I'd think they're all criminal sinkholes, but they simply don't have a good reputation here.
Okay, the date-raping is, I hope, not nearly as common as the fact that it is especially mentioned in a brief report like this would make it seem. Then again, it is unfortunately not unheard of in the capital (possibly elsewhere too, though I've fortunately never heard of it happening in Pilsen, the city where I live, the fourth-largest in the country), and even if there were only those 10-15 cases (many of these incidents reportedly go unreported, sometimes the victims don't remember enough to prosecute or choose not to even if they do), it's a sinister, abominable crime, and I definitely think telling visitors to watch their drinks is a good idea. Heck, I'd make that a general advisory, anywhere. Those narcotics may even be a health risk (rarely, even life-threatening) on top of everything.
So, I wouldn't change much in the report. (Surprised me they were so harsh to Slovakia, for example. Okay, there may be foreign mafias there, but to control the state - I seriously doubt it. Hopefully.) The report's factually accurate, and it's up to the reader what to make of it. I would hope those with common sense would not consider us a barbarian eastern state just because there are these warnings in there. The report points out things that a US citizen might not expect, because in the US it simply works differently, mostly. As to the crimes section, well, any crime is unfortunate, but it is true that our violent crime rates are lower than the US, especially large US cities. If I wrote a similar report on the US, I could for example write that "if you do not keep your hands on the wheel when pulled over by police, you can get shot dead just like that". This would seriously shock pretty much any European. And yes, I know that even though this has happened in the US, it is a tragic incident that should not have come to pass, not standard procedure. But still, Europeans should remember to keep their hands on the wheel. In Europe, this is quite pointless, as very, very few of us (the criminals included) carry guns around to try and shoot at police officers.
My point is, the report points out dangers that you may not expect due to different conditions in different countries. Crime is a sad reality, and if a particular variety is more common abroad, a responsible government should definitely make its citizens travelling there aware of it as part of prevention. The Czech authorities being defensive is essentially a ritual - if they admitted the report was right, it would be like saying "don't come here, it's dangerous, we know, we live here". That's not true. The Czech Republic is not the Wild East. But, then again, the crimes do happen, and the fact that statistically it's "as safe as" the US, if not more, does not help the victims one frigging bit. So I think that the Czech response may be downplaying it a bit too much. No drop in tourism is worth people becoming crime victims just because someone wanted the tourists to come so badly they made light of justified warnings. If I wrote the Czech response, I would delete the "denying" parts, and only keep the parts where they provide statistics (useful for everyone to judge for themselves if that's safe enough for them or not, and also hard evidence in case someone wanted to argue the point) and the parts that point out that even though those crimes warned against do happen (which, as I said already, is very sad no matter where and how much it occurs), their rates are, fortunately, among the lower in Europe and, for violent crime, lower than the US, at least in urban centers.
So, what would be my assessment for US citizens? Don't be afraid to come, it's safe here. But, do watch out for theft of all kinds (robbery is not that common, not any more than in US cities, I'd think). "Don't leave your drinks unattended" should be standard advisory anywhere, along with a long list of other things. In Prague, you can expect all the animal comforts of a Western city. Elsewhere - well, you cannot expect to find a hotel in a village, be it in the US or the Czech Rep. On the other hand, there is virtually no violent crime in the countryside. Even other large cities are mostly safe. Overall, you may become a victim of petty crime (scams, property theft, vehicle theft, theft of any kind in fact), but violent crime is rare and streets (especially main streets and tourist areas) are generally very safe. Still, exercise caution when walking alone late at night in large cities, especially if you haven't been there before and don't know them. Compared to that, in the US theft may be virtually unheard of, but then again, if you take the wrong turn in, e.g., NYC, bad things could happen to you with much more probability than anywhere in the Czech Republic, including the ... less-than-savory neighborhoods of Prague (which are, fortunately, few and small, but nevertheless do exist, and you should ask a local where outside downtown you should avoid going (if people tell you "stay in downtown, elsewhere it's unsafe", that's a load of baloney, most of Prague is just as safe as downtown, but there's a couple of 'hoods you should avoid - I know I would - just like in nearly every city its size)).
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