Summertime, and the livin’ is easy … unless you live in one of Europe’s party towns, when it is a daily battle against the excesses of British holidaymakers on a mission to get trashed. Magaluf has marked the start of the holiday season by putting up signs warning visitors against drinking alcohol on the street, stripping off, fighting and even defecating in public – with fines of up to €500 (£440) for those who ignore the warnings. The signs urge tourists to “#havefunwithrespect”.
It is not the first time the Mallorcan resort – AKA Shagaluf – has attempted to put an end to the carnage that unfolds on its streets each summer. In 2015, local authorities announced a multimillion, five-year plan to put the town’s notorious reputation – and nickname – behind it by introducing fine dining and luxury hotels in the hope of attracting a more discerning clientele. The fact that it has had to remind visitors not to defecate in the street suggests the rebranding project has some way to go.
“The signs will make no difference whatsoever,” says the manager of Magalluf [sic] Rocks, a bar on Punta Ballena, the strip notorious as the epicentre of the carnage. “I’ve been here 19 years. It will be policed for the first two weeks then it will be ignored.”
He may have a point. Holiday habits are changing: millennials want healthy holidays in Instagrammable locations, not buckets of cocktails on vomit-strewn streets – but they may not be changing as fast as Magaluf and other resorts would like. Benidorm has also spent years trying to move away from its party town reputation and rebrand itself as a high-end resort with five-star hotels and fancy gin bars. But last month the council issued warnings against tourists engaging in “uncivic behaviour”.
Last summer saw a flurry of reports about resorts becoming increasingly strict on tourists’ bad behaviour. Marbella banned bikinis on its streets and warned bars and clubs against encouraging the wrong sort of behaviour. Malia, in Crete, cracked down on group bookings to discourage hen and stag parties, with hotels reportedly turning down 10,000 potential visitors from the UK. It also banned pub-crawl operators. A similar story unfolded on the Croatian island of Hvar, which introduced fines for “unwelcome” behaviour – from public alcohol-drinking to wearing swimsuits in the historic centre.
Whether these resorts will report a reduction in anti-social behaviour remains to be seen. Club 18-30 holidays may be about to bite the dust, but the death of the drunken holiday in the sun could have been greatly exaggerated.
