What happens when cheap beer and high culture clash?
Just ask the residents of Krakow, Poland. The city has unfortunately been targeted by budget airlines as an inexpensive getaway from London. Combine this with the fact that alcohol is very cheap in Poland, and you’ve got the perfect ingredients for a British style stag party.
While the residents of Krakow initially welcomed the increase in tourism and the flush of cash it injected into the local city, bands of drunken rowdy Brits have a way of quickly wearing out their welcome. City officials quickly realized that stag parties hardly bring the most desirable type of tourist to Poland. Even more frustrating is the fact that they come to Poland strictly for the cheap beer. This is an insult to a town like Krakow which is awash in fine culture and great art.
To counter the British misconception that Krakow has nothing better to offer than a cheap pint, the city’s tourism board has launched an advertising campaign in England to educate them otherwise. “We cannot become known as the European centre of cheap beer and yobbish behaviour,” Krakow’s head of promotions and marketing recently stated in a Telegraph article titled, Britons’ Stag-Night Shame Mars Polish Heritage. Ouch!