There are bars up for sale or rent along Punta Ballena.

There are bars up for sale or rent along Punta Ballena. | Michels

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterCalvia04/01/2017 00:00
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The changes in Magalluf are having an impact on bars and other establishments associated with the image the resort wishes to shake off. In Punta Ballena, representative of this image, there are some twenty establishments with signs to rent, for sale or traspaso: sometimes all three.

Pepe Tirado, president of the Acotur tourist businesses association, believes that this is the consequence of the tourism law having facilitated the transformation of Magalluf, an aspect of which has been the creation of new higher-range establishments on the ground floors of tourist accommodation.

The new market, he suggests, is self-regulating in that it is providing the resort with a new image. Over time, only those businesses which adapt will survive. "There are business owners who have made great efforts. They have adapted to the new image by changing what they offer. Others have not. Hence, there are the signs."

Tirado observes, however, that meeting objectives of change are made more difficult by a tourist season - and so the opening and closing of hotels - getting shorter. This is an observation at variance with how the town hall has been describing developments.

He adds that there has been an "invisible hand" which has assisted in Magalluf's transformation - the local residents. But while there are residents who say that the past twenty years of excess - drugs, rape, fights, prostitution, "balconing" - are ending, there are others who insist that there is still a long way to go. Cheap booze offers may no longer be as prevalent, but issues remain, with the prostitutes at the top of the list.