Embarrassed Brit ambassador urges UK tourists to ‘be responsible’ in Spain amid fury over ‘beer-swilling holidaymakers’
BRITAIN’S embarrassed Ambassador to Spain has urged UK tourists in Magaluf to “show responsibility” as tensions boil over their alcohol fuelled antics.
Hugh Elliott said Brits had to remember they were guests during their time in the party resort as they’re accused of “drinking cheap beer” and being “low quality”.
Elliott’s visit comes as thousands of protesters demanding tourist tax, fewer flights and a clampdown on foreigners buying houses march in Spain, Greece and Italy.
Speaking during a visit to Majorca yesterday to publicise the Stick With Your Mates campaign for responsible alcohol consumption Elliott said: “Generally what we all want is responsibility.
“During holidays we all want to have a good time, don’t we, and young people above all.
“This is about understanding what responsibility is about, responsibility as guests because us foreigners are guests here in Spain and in Calvia, it’s a question of knowing how to behave with responsibility and have a good time.
“The tourism here is a type of tourism that appreciates the destination.”
Elliott’s visit came less than a week after regional government chiefs announced a tightening-up of restrictions designed to curb drunken tourism.
These include the forced night-time closure of shops selling alcohol and fines of up to £1,300 for people caught boozing in the street.
The patience of local Spanish islanders is wearing thin and they have began staging protests against revellers.
Ibiza locals have cried they “can’t take anymore” as they prepare to take to the streets later this month.
And hotel bosses in Benidorm have admitted they are “very worried” by the anger growing amongst island residents but branded holiday homes in Spain a “virus”.
Fede Fuster, head of local hotel association HOSBEC, said the demonstrations across the Atlantic archipelago, showed there were serious problems that needed to be addressed.
Huge fury-filled protests have been staged across the Canary Islands and Tenerife saw 15,000 turn up and even some go on hunger strike.
Residents of the largest Canary island have blasted UK holidaymakers as a “cancer” as costs soar and they claim drunken partygoers are ruining their paradise.
Tenerife’s locals have been fuming that they are “fed-up” of “low quality” Brit tourists who only come for the cheap beer, burgers and sunbathing.
Now, they are demanding a tourist tax, less flights to the island and a clampdown on foreigners buying houses.
And On Tuesday, the president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, Maria Frontera, called for a “strategic plan” to tackle tourist overcrowding, saying it’s got to a “critical” point.
Locals in Malaga are also demanding the end of the “touristification” of the popular holiday hotspot.
The frustrated residents claim they are being priced out of their own neighbourhoods – and more properties are being converted to hotels and tourist rentals offering short stays to visiting foreigners.
And it isn’t only Spain trying to keep rowdy Brits away as more anti-tourist graffiti has appeared at another Brit holiday hotspot as Athens joins the wave of protests calling for an end to “over-tourism.”
The sunny Greek capital, home to the iconic Parthenon has seen an increase in bitter graffiti messages urging tourists to “go home” – similar to the ones that have appeared in Spain in the past weeks.
Hugh Elliott said the key to the “Stick With Your Mates” campaign, was about “having a good time but staying safe.”
He said: “We have seen that in the great majority of cases when young people have had accidents, sometimes fatal accidents, it’s because they’ve been alone.
“Hence the Stick with Your Mates message because it’s a way in which holidaymakers can protect themselves and avoid problems.”
Mr Elliott met Calvia’s mayor Juan Antonio Amengual during his visit and afterwards they held a meeting with some of the business owners’ associations that work in the area.
The town hall said afterwards: “Last year ended in Magaluf without any deaths due to falls from hotels or apartments.
“The campaign that is now being resumed aims, in summary, to maintain this record among the thousands of young people who are already beginning to arrive in Magaluf.”
Georgia Hague started her own “Don’t Leave a Friend Behind” campaign after Natalie Cormack died in April 2018 at the notorious Eden Roc apartment block in Magaluf where two other Brits lost their lives.
The 19-year-old, from West Kilbride, Ayrshire, laid undiscovered for several hours after losing her balance as she tried to get into the flats and plunging the equivalent of seven floors as she edged her way along an overhang after discovering she was locked out.
Georgia, from Welwyn Garden City, Herts, also played a major part in a Stick With Your Mates campaign to make young tourists aware of the importance of looking out for each other when it was launched.
A video she featured in went viral and has been credited with helping prevent further deaths and accidents.
Business owners in Magaluf were quoted in Mail Online earlier this week saying they were tired of some of the behaviour of drunken British tourists and wanted to see more families in the resort.
The modifications announced last Friday have been marketed as part of a package of new measures designed to encourage “responsible tourism” in the areas covered by the legislation.
This includes Magaluf’s infamous Punta Ballena strip.
Bans on street drinking and night-time bans on the sale of alcohol in shops were already in place there.
Local media reporting on the “pioneering” 2020 decree four years ago claimed at the time: “The party is over.”
The Balearic Islands government has approved these rules to put a stop to the excesses of alcohol abuse in tourist areas.”
