Britain’s Ambassador to Spain has urged UK holidaymakers in Magaluf to ‘show responsibility’ amid Majorca’s clampdown on booze-fuelled tourists.
Hugh Elliott said that UK tourists had to remember they were guests during their time in the party resort.
Speaking during a visit yesterday to Calvia which Magaluf is part of to publicise the ‘Stick With Your Mates’ campaign for responsible alcohol consumption, the diplomat said: ‘Generally what we all want is responsibility.
‘During holidays we all want to have a good time, don’t we, and young people above all.
‘This is about understanding what responsibility is about, responsibility as guests because us foreigners are guests here in Spain and in Calvia, it’s a question of knowing how to behave with responsibility and have a good time.
‘The tourism here is a type of tourism that appreciates the destination.’
Britain’s Ambassador to Spain has urged UK holidaymakers in Magaluf to ‘show responsibility’
Brits have long seen trips to the Balearic Islands as a rite of passage
In an attempt to toughen up the islands’ 2020 legislation, shops selling alcohol in areas of ‘excessive tourism’ must now completely close between 9.30pm and 8am
Mr Elliott’s visit to Majorca came less than a week after regional government chiefs announced a tightening-up of restrictions designed to curb drunken tourism which include the forced night-time closure of shops selling alcohol and fines of up to £1,300 for people caught boozing in the street.
The original alcohol measures, which were passed in 2020, saw restrictions on the number of free drinks that package holidays could offer, as well as new rules on public nudity and climbing across hotel balconies.
But under revised plans, unveiled by the conservative Partido Popular government, although the areas where the booze restrictions are in force have been reduced, it is now illegal to drink in the street in those areas.
These new measures were fully supported by the Mayor of Calvia, Juan Antonio Amengual, who stated they would make the island a safer place to be enjoyed by all.
The new laws will be enforced until at least December 2027.
Mr Elliott said the key to the ‘Stick With Your Mates’ campaign, first launched in July 2019 by the British Embassy in Madrid and the British Consulate in Palma with major help from the friend of a Scots bar worker who died six years ago in a Magaluf fall, was ‘having a good time but staying safe.’
He said: ‘We have seen that in the great majority of cases when young people have had accidents, sometimes fatal accidents, it’s because they’ve been alone, hence the ‘Stick with Your Mates’ message because it’s a way in which holidaymakers can protect themselves and avoid problems.’
Mr Elliott met Calvia’s mayor Juan Antonio Amengual during his visit and afterwards they held a meeting with some of the business owners’ associations that work in the area.
The town hall said afterwards: ‘Last year ended in Magaluf without any deaths due to falls from hotels or apartments.
‘The campaign that is now being resumed aims, in summary, to maintain this record among the thousands of young people who are already beginning to arrive in Magaluf.’
Georgia Hague started her own ‘Don’t Leave a Friend Behind’ campaign after Natalie Cormack died in April 2018 at the notorious Eden Roc apartment block in Magaluf where two other Brits lost their lives.
The 19-year-old, from West Kilbride, Ayrshire, laid undiscovered for several hours after losing her balance as she tried to get into the flats and plunging the equivalent of seven floors as she edged her way along an overhang after discovering she was locked out.
Georgia, from Welwyn Garden City, Herts, also played a major part in a ‘Stick With Your Mates’ campaign to make young tourists aware of the importance of looking out for each other when it was launched.
A video she featured in went viral and has been credited with helping prevent further deaths and accidents.
Business owners in Magaluf told MailOnline earlier this week that they were tired of some of the behaviour of drunken British tourists and wanted to see more families in the resort.
The modifications announced last Friday to an existing 2020 regional government decree introduced to curb some of the worst tourist excesses have been marketed as part of a package of new measures designed to encourage ‘responsible tourism’ in the areas covered by the legislation, which include Magaluf’s infamous Punta Ballena strip.
Bans on street drinking and night-time bans on the sale of alcohol in shops were already in place there.
Local media reporting on the ‘pioneering’ 2020 decree four years ago claimed at the time: ‘The party is over. The Balearic Islands government has approved these rules to put a stop to the excesses of alcohol abuse in tourist areas.’
It comes after a series of crackdowns across several other Spanish islands as they battle overcrowding and immense spikes in tourism.
Last week, a Menorca holiday village dubbed the ‘Spanish Mykonos’ threatened to ban all tourists after previously telling them to only visit between 11am and 8pm so they can enjoy their breakfasts.
The words ‘Go Home Tourist’ were scrawled in English over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in Nou Llevant, Mallorca, a neighbourhood that has seen a massive influx of foreign buyers over the past few years
Spanish islands are threatened by sea pollution, traffic gridlock and lack of cheap affordable housing linked to the pushing-up of property prices because of Airbnb-style holiday lets
Demonstrators packed into Weyler Square in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz, the start point for a march on the Brit-popular holiday island, on April 20
Ibiza also became the latest Spanish holidaymaker hotspot to join in with growing anti-tourism protests that have erupted around the country.
Protesting has been seen in other popular destinations, such as Tenerife, where furious locals even went on hunger strike in an effort to voice their anger.
In Menorca, graffiti has sprung up on walls telling tourists to ‘go home’, and stickers sporting the tagline ‘Don’t tag this beach, b**ch!’ have been spotted plastered around beach entrances in a bid to stop locals from sharing the island’s beauty spots on social media.
In Marbella last year, tyres on cars with British number plates were slashed.
On April 20, thousands of protestors took to the streets of the Canary Islands to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism and demand their politicians take action.
The protestors chanted the slogan: ‘Canarias tiene un limite’, which in English translates as ‘The Canary Islands have a limit.’
Two weeks ago the same words appeared painted in white on the tarmac of one of the access roads to Mount Teide in Tenerife.
Another message painted on the road said: ‘Moratoria turistica’ – ‘Tourist moratorium’ in English.’