New Spanish crackdown from today warning with £1,300 fines for tourists

Police will swoop on anyone drinking outside in the Balearic Islands from Saturday May 11, in new rules aimed to stop bad behaviour from holidaymakers

Tourists are being warned that Spanish authorities are planning a crackdown on drinking which could see people fined up to £1,300. Anyone going to the country’s Balearic Islands is being told to avoid having alcohol outside, with police ready to swoop.

The government wants to crack down on anti-social behaviour from visitors and the toughening of a law passed in 2020 will apply to popular hotspots including Playa de Palma and Magaluf in Majorca and Sant Antoni in Ibiza.

People caught drinking outside of authorised areas will be fined between €500-1,500 (£430-1290). Under the new law, coming into force today (Saturday, Mat 11) the number of sanctions taken against foreigners will be counted and submitted to the respective embassies.

The legislation introduces tougher rules against party boats, which will be banned from getting closer than one nautical mile (1.852 km) of the designated areas. Picking up or disembarking passengers will continue to be banned.

The holiday hotspot has tightened up the already-tough laws surrounding street drinking and has forbidden places from selling booze between 9.30pm and 8am the next day.

Party boats had previously been banned from advertising in the three areas. Luis Pomar, a press officer at the Balearic Islands tourism council, told the BBC that the 2020 law had been working to curb anti-social behaviour. He added that he hoped the law would no longer be needed “in three to four years, if we instil in people how to behave”.

Up to €16 million (£13.7m) will be spent on improving areas which see the most tourism. The areas the law applies to have been modified at the request of the local authorities, the Balearic Islands said.

Mr Pomar said a commission on “the Promotion of Civility in Tourist Zones” would be expanded to include representatives of the countries whose tourists are most associated with problems - the UK and Germany. The government reiterated that the 2020 law bans shops from selling alcohol between 21:30 and 08:00 local time (20:30-07:00 GMT).

At the time of the introduction of the 2020 law, the regional government said it was the first in Europe to restrict the promotion and sale of alcohol in certain tourist zones. It said the new measures would “fight excesses” and “force a real change in the tourism model of those destinations”. But some locals complained that the law would hurt businesses.

It comes after the mayor of Majorca’s capital, Palma, introduced plans for new sanctions for bad behaviour in some of the area’s biggest holiday hotspots in the coming months. He said one of his main goals of the new Ordinance is to “correct uncivil attitudes” in the area - which applies to holidaymakers as well as locals.

The new Civic Ordinance, which is due to come into force in the next couple of months, could see offenders hit with fines of up to €3,000 depending on the severity of the breach. Its rules will include a ban on drink parties in public places, graffiti, scooters as well as nudism and semi-nudism.