Magaluf mayor declares war on Brit tourists urging them not to visit the resort and demanding bars stop ‘happy hours’
The resort wants to shed its 'Shagaluf' image and get rid of boozed-up Brits
MAGALUF’S mayor has told Brit tourists seeking "debauchery" in the town they are not wanted - and called on bars to get rid of Happy Hours and cheap drinks deals.
Alfonso Rodriguez Badal is desperate to rid the resort of its "Shagaluf" image, and says boozed-up Brits are not wanted.
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He called on bar owners in areas like Magaluf party strip Punta Ballena to stop offering alcohol at knockdown prices and help transform the holiday hotspot.
His comments come after incidents involving Brit tourists threatened to derail attempts to distance Magaluf from its Shagaluf nickname.
Police are still trying to identify two women who paraded naked near Punta Ballena on Saturday morning.
Three Brits were fined in Magaluf after ugly street clashes between England and Scotland football fans earlier this month.
Nearly 20 Brit holidaymakers were fined after a naked skinny-dip on front of astonished children in neighbouring resort Palmanova.
Magaluf’s reputation took a devastating nosedive three years ago after a British teenager was filmed performing sex acts on a string of men in a bar.
Council chiefs and entrepreneurs have been working hard to turn things around with the launch of new hotels, infrastructures and leisure facilities, coupled with a crackdown on bad behaviour with new by-laws to tackle bar crawls, street drinking and public nakedness.
Last year officials began to highlight the fact that the number of families and couples visiting the resort, part of the municipality of Calvia, had risen and the number of young travellers was down.
In a hard-hitting opinion piece published by a local paper, Mr Rodriguez Badal, whose municipality of Calvia includes Magaluf and its less brash neighbour of Palmanova, said: “Resistance to change must be defeated.
“We cannot allow ourselves to maintain offers anchored in the past of ‘Everything goes’ or in the mantra that ‘the worst tourist is the one who doesn’t come.’"
He said tourists looking for "debauchery" would be "best off not coming".
“The aggressive and excessive offer of free alcohol is one of the obvious causes of these outrages that we are suffering."
He said Happy Hours, two-for-one deals and free bars should be "terminated".
The mayor was due to meet with hotel chiefs and bar owners to discuss attempts to eradicate “drunken tourism” in areas like Punta Ballena, described by the former president Jose Ramon Bauza as “500 metres of shame.”
Police officers' union has also called for tighter controls on the sale of booze at airports to tourists flying to and from the islands.
Drunken British tourists are said to have been involved in a string of recent airport altercations including one thought to have taken place at Palma airport in which two police officers were injured.
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