Brits who are planning a boozy trip away to Spain’s Balearic Islands may now wish to amend their plans after EasyJet told holiday hopefuls that drinks in all-inclusive resorts will be limited to six a day.
New rules split the day into a ‘lunch timetable’ and an ‘evening timetable’, with only three drinks allowed during each period, in an effort to clamp down on public drunkenness.
Other rules ban the sale of alcohol in shops between 9:30pm and 8am, as well as pub crawls, two-for-one drinks offers and happy hours – all staples of British holiday boozing.
Advertising party boats and balcony jumping could even attract a £50,000 fine.
Only party hot-spots, such as Magaluf and parts of Ibiza and Palma, have been targeted, so customers are being advised to check before booking.
Most of the new restrictions came into place in 2020, however, due to Covid, many Brits are only now discovering them, much to their dismay.
According to the Liverpool Echo, anyone attempting to book an all-inclusive stay via EasyJet is now given the following message: “Due to a change in Spanish law which affects certain resorts in the Balearic Islands, alcoholic drinks are now limited to three per person at lunch and dinner as part of the all-inclusive basis.”
On the one hand, these laws hope to put a stop to drunk and disorderly behaviour from tourists, however, they also wish to halt the ‘cheapening’ of the Balearic Islands in order to attract new investors who evidently do not appreciate its rowdy image.
Announcing the new laws in 2020, a regional government spokesman said: “Efforts to promote the destination, to provide it with better quality through both public and private sector investments, and position it in an increasingly competitive and global market, have been affected recently by certain un-civic behaviour.
“Most of this type of behaviour is directly related to alcohol abuse in certain tourist areas of Majorca and Ibiza.”
Such plans have actually been in the works since 2014, when a resort in Magaluf was hit with a scandal after a British holidaymaker was filmed performing sex acts on 24 men.
Majorca’s top politician at the time, Jose Ramon Bauza, dubbed Magaluf’s notorious party strip Punta Ballena ‘500 metres of shame’.
Council chiefs upped the ante in 2018 after they erected street signs warning of heavy fines for street drinking, nakedness and fighting, a sure target against badly-behaving Brits abroad.
Abbi Murray