"We have a new season, but with the usual problems. We have come through Covid, the tourists are returning. There is talk of improving the quality of tourism, but nothing changes. Rather, everything continues as before. Or worse. Magalluf fills up with prostitutes at night. They have no intention of 'practising', only robbing tourists when they return to their hotels, some with more alcohol inside them than they should have."
These were the words of Pepe Tirado, the president of the Acotur association of tourist businesses, towards the end of May last year. Four weeks into the 'official' tourism season, and he was insisting that nothing had really changed in Magalluf.
The official season 2023 now a day away (May 1 is the start), and Tirado's words are still applicable. Diego Belmonte is the president of the Emytra association of Calvia employers and workers. The Calvia he knows best is Magalluf, and in Magalluf, he knows Punta Ballena the best. It is the strip where the new Magalluf is most being put to the test, and Belmonte highlights just one of the issues that Magalluf has had to grapple with for years. "One of the great scourges we have here is the sale of drugs. The local police and the Guardia Civil are perfectly aware of the large amount of drugs being sold to tourists."
The weekend before the start of the official season, and Magalluf by night has its familiar visitors. The tourists are back in number but so also are the dealers, the thieves, the so-called prostitutes. Same as it ever was. Belmonte reckons that at weekends there are some fifty robberies a day. Young tourists, typically on drugs and/or having had too much to drink, are easy prey for the gangs who operate in the area. The frontline health service employees, as they have in the past, warn of the presence of drugs that result in a loss of control.
Belmonte says that "we must make it clear that the tourists who visit us, the great majority of them young people, should have fun, a good time and enjoy their holidays". "They are kids and they should not be criminalised under any circumstances. The real problems lie with others."
Businesses in the area, he adds, are very aware of the importance of working to improve the quality of tourism, though they feel that the law of tourism excesses should apply everywhere and not just to a specific area of Magalluf and to the three other resorts (Arenal in Llucmajor, Playa de Palma and Sant Antoni).
But while this law can come down hard on businesses in particular, there are other aspects of legality - or rather illegality - that might be said to represent the "real problems". Everyone knows what these are, and they have known them for years.
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It is indeed a fine balance Jules and your comments are well balanced too. I am a home owner in Mallorca now but much of my holidaying mis spent youth was in Mallorca and me and my friends then had, I am sure, the same expectations as the young of today - simply to have a lot of fun, which inevitably involved consuming absurd amounts of alcohol and at times behaving like total pratts! We also shared one other crucial expectation - that we could so in a safe, protected environment. Of course, we never actually thought about it, but we assumed it. When your in your teens you are not as worldly wise as you think and it is incumbent on the adults/the authorities to make sure the young are safe. If you can't, then don't let them come and don't take their money. My early days in Mallorca led to a life long love affair which now involves my family, red wine, lovely food and the joys of the tramuntana. It started with partying 'to excess'. On that journey I always felt safe and the younger visitors to the island today should still be able to take the same for granted.
It's a fine balance, because deterring youth tourism as a whole could have negative long term consequences for the island. Not only does the youth market have a higher per-capita spending money than family tourists do, the same young tourists who come to Magaluf will one day return as older less booze-orientated visitors, enjoying Mallorca's many other beautiful areas and attractions. Provided they're not made to feel unwelcome in their younger years. I do agree that greater policing (provided not too heavy handed, which we all know the Guardia are capable of being) will yield results, as 99% of young British tourists aren't bad apples. They're just looking for a good time, and will happily respect reasonable boundaries. Spain has a higher number of police per head of population than any other European country. But it doesn't feel that way in Magaluf, which has always been under-policed.
Having Fun for the young people means getting drunk,taking drugs,having sex etc. All of which they come to Shagalluf to so call have fun for a week or two. Magalluf has a world wide bad reputation for these excesses. The drug dealers, mugging Prostitutes etc. have not been punished. What is needed is very strong policing of the whole area. Instant punishment for those offenders. Deportation of Prostitutes , drug dealers and the immediate closure of bars and businesses involved with all of these illegal excesses. Until Magalluf is seriously cleaned up. It will continue to be the very bad attractive reputation that Mallorca should remove. There has to be a major reason for the authorities to continue with the terrible actions occuring in that Urbanisation. IS IT REVENUES ,TAXATION AND SECRET INVESTORS IN MAGALLUF THAT KEEPS THE MAINTENANCE OF ITS VERY BAD ATTRACTIONS??
How come Magaluf is full of "dealers and so-called prostitutes" and has such a high crime rate? Could it be that such predators are simply attracted to easy prey? In the photos (and the press), it sure looks ripe. I reckon they're like flies, coming out of nowhere when they smell it. Oh, and the "tourism of excesses" restrictions apply throughout the balearics. It's just that it's only applicable in troublesome areas. And that explains why you only hear about it in those places. It's just impractical to enforce it where there isn't a problem.