Spanish holiday resort Palma bans topless parading, anti-social behavior
Laura Perez Maestro, CNN • Updated 17th July 2018
Madrid (CNN) — Planning a trip to the holiday island of Mallorca, Spain? Better pack something a little less revealing.
Authorities in the island's capital, Palma, are mounting a war on what they call "the tourism of excesses," cracking down on public nudity, drinking, sex acts and anti-social behavior.
Their weapon is a new list of rules and regs that will encourage tourists to "act responsibly," or face heavy fines.
"This ordinance will not solve all the problems but gives the police tools to work with," said Angelica Pastor, Palma's councilor for security. "I hope that it helps to improve the city so we have a better coexistence in the main leisure areas."
The new measures, which follow similar regulations introduced in 2017 in Magaluf, the island's rowdy main resort, follow rising complaints from locals about the behavior of the visitors who provide Mallorca's main source of income.
They come at a time when the negative effect of mass tourism is being debated in travel hotspots around the world from Machu Picchu in Peru to Venice in Italy.
Tourism excesses
When finally approved after summer 2018, the rules will give police more control over the island's entertainment industry and the power to issue on-the-spot fines.
Anyone caught wandering around topless could be made to pay up to €3,000 ($3,500). People found having sex in the street or performing sex acts in public will be fined too.
More no-nos: Jumping from hotel balconies into swimming pools and the sale of laughing gas.
"We will attack the tourism of excesses head-on," said Palma's mayor, Antoni Noguera. "We will have the tools to avoid giving the wrong image of our city. It will help us improve Palma."
The laws will also target so-called "hate crimes" involving locals taking matters into their own hands to deal with unruly tourists.
"We must all be part of the solution," Noguera added.
