Brits heading for Majorca hotspots face all-inclusive drinks crackdown

Officials on the Spanish island are considering the measure as they try to curb the drunken and anti-social behaviour which has blighted holiday hotspots such as Magaluf and Palma Nova for decades.

There have already been calls for hotels and bars to scrap happy hours and two-for-one offers but Calvia council, which covers 18 tourist zones, also wants alcohol restrictions in all-inclusive hotels.

Magaluf is a magnet for partygoers from Britain, Russia, Germany, Ireland and Scandinavia but it has a reputation for allowing binge drinking among young holidaymakers in its bars and clubs.

Most of the nightlife takes place along the town’s infamous the Punta Ballena strip which hit the headlines last summer after a series of booze-fuelled public order incidents involving young British tourists.

Mayor Alfonso Rodríguez Badal met tourism chiefs to discuss new restrictions that would prohibit all-inclusive hotels serving free alcohol all day and night and restrict it to meal-times only.

A Calvia council spokeswoman said: “One of the issues discussed is the regulation of the all-inclusive, a claim the council has put on the table since the beginning of the legislature. 

“The mayor has reiterated the need for it to be limited and that alcohol is removed, restricting it exclusively to alcohol units during meals.”

Balearic government tourism minister Bel Busquets said his department was working on all-inclusive restrictions and preparing regulations.

Island chiefs are desperate to create a new image for Majorca’s notorious party resorts but hotels are pushing their all-inclusive offers amid fears over tourist tax hikes in the Balearics and renewed tourist interest in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey.

Hotel bosses warned the increased ecotax, an average of three euros per night for holidaymakers, could lose Majorca one million tourists in 2018.

But officials dismissed their concerns and pointed to new figures showing the Balearic Islands attracted a record 13,790,968 international holidaymakers during 2017, an increase of 6.1 per cent.