Boozy Brit holidays in Magaluf will be killed off by coronavirus – and replaced with German tourists
MAGALUF town hall chiefs reckon the coronavirus crisis could finally kill off booze-fuelled brash tourism at the party resort.
The famous Punta Ballena strip is a ghost town at the moment and is expected to remain that way until at least July when the Spanish government could let in the first holiday flights.
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Brits and Irish normally start flocking to the Majorcan resort from Easter and make up about 95 per cent of the area's foreign tourists in June and July.
But Boris Johnson’s quarantine plan means Brits could be few and far between - and replaced by German tourists instead.
Today, area tourist boss Javier Pascuet said he believed the Covid-19 pandemic would mark a turning point in Magaluf’s future and could spell the end for its Brit-led drunken debauchery.
The dad-of-four, who is Director General of Tourism for the municipality of Calvia which includes Magaluf, said: “What we’ve got in Magaluf at the moment is a stage without actors.
“Magaluf at this time of the year would be busy and right now areas like Punta Ballena are empty.
“It makes me feel sad. It makes me want to cry. If anyone had told me in January we were going to be where we are now, I obviously wouldn’t have believed them because this was going to be a record year.
He contined: “Magaluf is going to be a very different place this year.
“Everyone knows we’ve been trying to change the resort and change was occurring. But the shift this year will be a tsunami.
“It was always going to be more difficult for British holidaymakers to come here this summer and commit the sort of excesses we’ve seen all too often in the past because of by-law modifications and the new regional government drunken tourism decree.
“Now it’s going to be far more so if they can come, and it’s a big if, because of the restrictions that are part of the new world reality.
“We’ll have to see what other countries end up doing but my feeling is more Spanish and probably more German is going to be spoken in Magaluf, especially if they drift away from their traditional strongholds like S’Arenal in Majorca.
“Germany is well-positioned at the moment to resume holiday flights and it has a long-standing love affair with this island.”
Pascuet added: “Anything that involves hundreds of people together is something we’re not going to see this year.
“I truly believe Covid-19 could deal a mortal blow to the type of tourism we have seen in Magaluf and especially Punta Ballena and British tourists when they can come back will return to a very different resort."
Traditionally British and to a lesser extent Irish holidaymakers have made up 95 per cent of the foreign tourists flocking to Magaluf in June and July.
Year-on-year Brits top the list of countries who have most nationals expelled from hotels. They also top the ranks of those fined for public nakedness or fighting.
Pascuet said: “It’s certainly going to accelerate some of the changes that have already taken place here.
“We would all have liked the turn-around to have been more consensual and bar owners to agree to ditch their happy hour and drink-as-much-as-you-like for five hours for £20 offers without their hand being forced.
“The situation we find ourselves in now is certainly not something we wanted.
“But the new reality is that Magaluf this year will not be making the news because a British teenager has fallen or jumped from a hotel balcony or stripped off naked in the street and that’s something we would have desired."
A highly-publicised regional government decree, hailed as a drunken tourism crackdown, was agreed at the start of this year for areas like Magaluf and the West End of San Antonio in neighbouring Ibiza.
It included fines of up to £50,000 for holidaymakers caught leaping off their hotel balconies and limits on the amount of alcohol served with meals at all-inclusive hotels.
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Pascuet said: “For a municipality like Calvia, which is 70 per cent dependent on tourism either directly or indirectly, these are very difficult times and it’s going to be a hard summer.
“But looking to the future Magaluf is going to be a challenge for an entrepreneur with money and good ideas.
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“If we manage to finally rid ourselves of the tourism of excess that has characterised Magaluf for too long, we will have achieved what we wanted.”
The Sun Online had previously revealed that Magaluf hotels had vowed to stay closed until Brits come back, with island begging for tourist flights to restart ASAP.
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