Brits could be hit with on-the-spot fines for drinking booze in the streets under new Balearic Islands rules

British holidaymakers could face on-the-spot fines for drinking alcohol on the street, under tough new rules that government leaders in the Balearic Islands must urgently adopt.

Last month it emerged that ill-behaved tourists will be banned from islands, including Ibiza and Mallorca, under controversial new proposals.

The island’s head of tourism, Jaume Bauza, confirmed that the idea of ​​a blacklist is being considered as part of a package of tougher measures being prepared against anti-social visitors to the popular destinations.

It was reported today that members of a working group, set up to prepare changes to an existing regional level against excessive tourism, want street drinking to be punished with fines.

Respected Mallorcan newspaper Diario de Mallorca said the proposal, which would see on-the-spot cash fines imposed through the use of card-reading machines, is one of a number of new measures that have been put forward.

A document outlining the proposed changes has been prepared by a law firm based in the Mallorcan capital Palma, with input from hoteliers, restaurateurs and owners of bars and nightclubs through their respective representative associations.

These include the Playa de Palma Hotel Association and the CAEB Mallorca Restaurants Association.

In early 2020, a decree on drunken tourism was agreed for certain areas such as Magaluf in Mallorca and the West End of San Antonio in neighboring Ibiza.

It included fines of up to £50,000 for holidaymakers caught jumping from their hotel balconies and limits on the amount of alcohol served with meals at all-inclusive hotels.

The May elections led to a new right-wing regional government taking power. It has already announced its intention to change the name of the decree against excessive tourism to that of the ‘responsible tourism’ decree to avoid negative connotations.

It also plans to eliminate the current situation where only some streets in certain resorts, including Magaluf and San Antonio, are covered by the rules, meaning action could potentially be taken against violators on any of the four islands that make up of the Balearic Islands.

The regional government has not yet responded to reports of on-the-spot fines for drinking alcohol on the street.

Mr Bauza appeared to confirm last month that a proposal was being considered to put some anti-social visitors on flights home and ban them from returning for a period of time.

Holidaymakers who flout the rules can already be evicted from their hotels, including holidaymakers who jump between balconies in a dangerous practice known locally as ‘balconying’.

Mr Bauza said this depends on the “crime or offense committed” when asked about the blacklist proposal during a meeting of the Commission for the Promotion of Citizenship in Tourist Zones with representatives of the four municipalities affected by the current decree on excessive tourism.

Explaining that it would be ‘addressed in the decree’, he was quoted by the respected newspaper Diario de Ibiza as saying: ‘I have expressed the main points and nothing is excluded or confirmed at this stage.

‘Then a legal framework will be needed. The most important thing is that we also focus on companies, but especially on people who behave in a way that is not acceptable, here and anywhere else.’

The party resorts of Magaluf and part of Playa de Palma east of the island’s capital, which is also one of the areas covered by the decree on excessive tourism, have been rocked this summer by several alleged sexual attacks involving foreign tourists, including gang rape.

A British 18-year-old was allegedly raped in a hotel in Magaluf in the early hours of August 14. Five French nationals and a Swiss man were arrested and remanded in custody pending an ongoing judicial investigation. Two more suspects were subsequently detained. in France on European arrest warrants.

The incidents put a spotlight on resorts popular with Britons such as Magaluf, which has been trying to improve its international image in recent years.

Prostitutes and some pickpockets have been granted restraining orders by the court banning them from setting foot in Magaluf, so taking measures to declare certain individuals ‘personas non grata’ is not new in the area.

Any attempt by the Balearic government to blacklist anti-social tourists will clash with EU free movement law, with the holidaymakers coming from EU member states.

Although the right-wing Popular Party won May elections in the Balearic Islands, Spain’s left-wing caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is expected to successfully form a national coalition government later this week that would exclude the right.

In August, it emerged that four out of five tourists given five-figure fines for climbing between balconies at hotels in Magaluf over the summer were British.

Calvia Council, responsible for the party resort, said on August 21 that five foreign holidaymakers had been fined for ‘balcony use’. They were ordered to pay 36,000 euros (£30,720) each and were evicted from their hotels.

The fines were imposed under a regional government decree aimed at eradicating drunken tourism and passed just over three years ago.

Earlier the same month, a company that offered British holidaymakers illegal booze cruises in Magaluf was fined almost £140,000 under the same decree.

Council chiefs responsible for the Mallorca resort said company bosses were caught red-handed when they escorted around 130 tourists, who had paid almost £40 each, to a boat where loud music would be played and alcohol offered.

The island’s head of tourism, Jaume Bauza, confirmed that the idea of ​​a blacklist is being considered as part of a package of tougher measures being prepared against anti-social visitors to the popular destinations.

The groundbreaking crackdown on excessive tourism put an end to pub crawls, happy hours and cheap two-for-one drink deals in certain areas.

It has also suspended the concession of new ‘party boat’ permits, with boats that were already licensed no longer being allowed to embark or disembark tourists in the affected areas.

The new mayor of Calvia, Juan Antonio Amengual, said last month, after it emerged that the ‘exclusion’ of certain areas, which critics of the regional government decree have complained about, would be halted: ‘What you are discovering at the moment is that on the one hand of the On the street you have the strict rules and on the other side you don’t.

“We want everything to be the same.”