In this comedic Ted Talk, Janek Rubes- best known for his YouTube channel ‘Honest Guide’- explains how ‘travelling like a local’ can really help cities deal with overtourism, and that it can also sometimes help cities generally.
The Prague City Centre attracts 8 million tourists a year, which is ≅6 times higher than the population of the area.That means there are more tourists than locals in the area every day. According to Janek: this has split the city into two cities, one for tourists, and one for locals- which he doesn’t like.
Because of this, Janek and a friend started a YouTube channel called ‘Honest Guide’, where they showcase what they actually do in Prague and what the city’s like behind all the attractions. For example, according to Janek, the only truly traditional Czech food is a type of open-faced sandwich (since it’s the only food with the word ‘Czech’ in it.) This created a bit of a ripple effect in which, after his video where he promoted the sandwich, more people bought it. He then made a video showcasing that to eat even more locally, people can buy food from school cafeterias. And once again, more people followed his advice
He then explains that he soon decided to help the city of Prague in general. For example, he helped prove that Paternoster elevators (an elevator with a chain of open compartments that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping, allowing you to step off on any floor) are actually quite safe. The influence he had was so large that a Paternoster elevator got overcrowded and broke! Janek was also involved in shutting down countless scams, such as shutting down an exchange place that was scamming people.
In my opinion ‘travelling like a local’ is a genius idea. I honestly wonder why barely any one has thought of it before. Since there are really big cities in really small countries, overtourism has a drastic effect- one that is far from always positive. I also personally found this TED Talk to be a really enjoyable one to watch and review, mainly due to it being extremely light-hearted.
