Magaluf crackdown: Spanish police calls time on 'Shagaluf' with strict new behaviour rules

The Mallorcan resort has become notorious for attracting drunken Brits

Tourists on a street in Magaluf. Late-night on-street drinking will be banned next week (Getty)

Young British holidaymakers looking for a wild time in Magaluf would be advised to let their hair down this weekend – after the notorious Mallorcan resort announced strict new behaviour rules would come into force on Tuesday.

The crackdown stipulates mandatory uniforms for pub-crawlers, arrest for anyone encouraging antisocial behaviour and £500 fines for urinating on the street.

An extra 36 police officers will be deployed onto the streets of “Shagaluf” to enforce the laws.

Calvià Council, which includes Magaluf, has become one of the richest municipalities in Spain thanks to earnings from high-spending holidaymakers. But drunken Brits cavorting naked and performing sex acts in public have caused outrage among residents.

In a bid to “guarantee the wellbeing and enjoyment of tourists and locals,” the local authority is imposing the most draconian rules in any Spanish resort from 9 June.

Drinking on the streets will be banned between 10pm and 8am, and shops will be prohibited from selling alcohol after midnight. Urinating in the street or being naked in public will incur a minimum fine of €750 – with penalties applied equally to bystanders who egg on their friends to commit such acts.

Pub-crawl organisers face stringent new rules that are likely to dampen their impact and appeal. Last year, film of a teenage girl from Co Armagh in Northern Ireland performing sex acts on 24 men in return for free alcohol went viral.

The regulations state that all pub crawl participants must wear “special identification clothes”. Numbers will be limited to 20 per pub crawl. (At present, some organisers of pub crawls in Spain boast of numbers reaching 350.)

The revellers must have a minimum of two minders, trained in first aid, in attendance. Penalties of up to €3,000 will apply to “balconing”, the practice of jumping from one balcony to another or into a hotel pool from a height.

The top tourism official for the Balearic islands, Jaime Martinez, said: “There is no way back from the transformation of this popular destination.” Spain’s tourism minister, Isabel Borrego, said the new rules would “foster a new framework in which all tourists can fully enjoy their holidays in a manner that is responsible for themselves and the destination.”

The UK ambassador to Spain, Simon Manley, said: “We want British visitors to Magaluf to enjoy themselves, as they do elsewhere in Spain. But we also want them to stay safe and to respect the laws and customs.”

But Jason Moore, the editor of Majorca Daily Bulletin, was sceptical: “Every year a crackdown is promised but nothing is done, and 36 coppers working a street that at any one time has 2,000 people aren’t going to have much effect.”

The Capitol British Pub, which offers unlimited drinks for an hour for €7, declined to comment about the rules.

An all-inclusive week in Magaluf with Club 18-30 departing from Gatwick on the day the new rules take effect costs £386. The holiday company – part of the Thomas Cook Group – calls the resort “by far the closest clubbing destination to the UK,” and offers “crazy nights out on Magaluf’s buzzing strip.”

Click here to view Spanish tours and holidays, with Independent Holidays.