The mayor of Magaluf has vowed there will be ‘zero tolerance’ against drunken Brits in a fresh warning to UK holidaymakers as anti-tourist sentiment continues to grow in Spain.
Juan Antonio Amengual, who is the head of Calvia – a district which includes Magaluf – insists that the resort is welcoming to Brits abroad, after admitting that tourism is its main industry.
However, he told that holidaymakers must behave themselves as the town attempts to crackdown on binge-drinking, drug dealing and prostitution that has blighted it for decades.
In recent months there have nationwide anti-tourism protests by locals on islands such as Mallorca and in other Spanish coastal areas, claiming that they are being priced out of the property market and that boozy British tourists are making their lives hell.
Several miles away in the Mallorcan capital of Palma, demonstrators handed out flyers to foreign visitors which suggested the opposite to Mr Amengual’s peace-keeping message, declaring: ‘We are not your amusement park!’
The ‘Less Tourism – More Life’ group, accompanied by a brass band, handed out leaflets which said: ‘You’re not welcome!
‘Mass tourism expels neighbours from their homes, wastes necessary resources, eliminates neighbourhood cultures, kills local commerce, increases prices, only creates precarious work and destroys heritage.
‘We are not your amusement park!’
The protestors and their followers danced around the streets, visiting various sites including the town hall and a German estate agency, handing out awards for ‘turismaphilia’.
Meanwhile Mr Amengual, a former tour guide himself, wanted to send a more nuanced message, acknowledging that Magaluf depends on the thousands of British visitors and the money they spend.
But he pledged ‘zero tolerance’ against the drunken, loutish and anti-social behaviour from groups of young Britons and others which has blighted the resort for decades.
Police officers, some under cover, have already been deployed to crack down on binge-drinking, drug dealing and prostitution on the holiday resort’s infamous ‘strip’ of nightclubs, strip shows and bars – officially Carrer Punta Ballena.
New measures to control the behaviour of partying Brits, including a street drinking ban and restrictions on the sale of late-night booze, are set to be trialled until December 2027.
Under the legislation, anti-social street drinkers could face a fine between €500 (£430) and €1,500 (£1,290) for disrupting the ‘tranquillity of the environment’.
Mr Amengual said: ‘In your country, you cannot urinate in the street, walk around with alcohol, drinking as if there is no tomorrow or being half naked, and the message is that it’s the same here.
‘Of course, all tourists are welcome to Majorca, but we are asking them to behave like they do at home.
‘Take care of our people and the environment. Tourists have been coming to Mallorca for the last 60 years.
‘It’s our main industry, and we want to serve and to give our best face to the tourists. And the tourists will be always welcome to Majorca.’
But he stressed that the island prefers ‘quality to quantity’ when it comes to tourists, hinting that, in line with most Spaniards, they would prefer to host well-behaved families with children rather than marauding groups of stag- and hen-parties who have earned the resort the nickname of ‘Sh*galuf’.
‘The street is not a bar,’ he said. ‘If you want to drink, you go to a bar, not the street.’
Meanwhile the protestors who danced and sang their way through Palma, along with other groups, want civic leaders like Mr Amengual to take a long look at the tourism which they say is spoiling parts of their idyllic island and pricing them out of their homes.
One of their spokesmen, 25-year-old architecture student Pere Joan Femenia, told : ‘We are not against tourism, but we are against saturation tourism.
‘We demand fewer tourists than we have right now and a better life. It is not sustainable.
‘One of the main problems is we can’t buy or rent a house, because the tourists push the prices up because they have more economic power.
‘They also overcrowd many of our beaches and other public places and drive up the price of everything in the city centre.
‘We don’t have a number of how much to reduce it. We have repeatedly asked the government to conduct a study to come up with a figure for the island’s capacity, but they refuse.
‘But we are obviously over-capacity because we have to import food and water from outside the island and that’s unsustainable.
‘Of course Mallorca depends on tourism, but we want to make the economy less dependent.
‘About 25 years ago Mallorca was in 14th position in Europe for income per capita, but now we have dropped 100 places, while the number of tourists keeps on increasing.
‘So more tourists does not equal more economic benefits for Mallorca.’
The protestors carried items of luggage to make the point that they have lost their homes to tourists.
‘Many people are angry because they have lost their homes or can’t afford to rent in their home village, and they say “tourists go home”.’
The row between angry locals and tourists has reached toxic levels, with one vile anti-holidaymaker group mocking people who have died plummeting from hotel balconies and celebrating the deaths of Brits abroad.
It counts up the number of deaths around resorts on the islands due to ‘balconing’, a dangerous craze which involves climbing between one balcony to another, usually on the outside of a hotel, or jumping into pools below.
Balconing Balearic Federation’, ranks nations in a cruel football-style league table by handing out points for deaths or critical injuries and calling victims ‘dead athletes’.
Each country is awarded two points for every person killed and one point when they are left injured. The UK is top of the table – with 197 points given for 42 deaths and 113 injuries since 1999 on the Balearics.
The page morbidly declared Brits to be ‘masters and lords of this sport’.