Dear Sir,
Two items o BBC TV are of interest to the never ending Magalluf debate.
The first item came out of an interview with Martin Freeman, the lead actor in a modern version of Richard III, over the bad manners of his audience booing and clapping inappropriately. "Of little import" he replied "when you recall that at the original Globe Theatre many of the drunken plebs in the second row, bored by Shakespeare and throwing things at the stage, would often resort to fornication (not the word he used) to liven their jaded evening". Magalluf doesn’t have a monopoly of anti-social behaviour in this or any other century.
Secondly of all capital cities in the World London is number one in attracting international tourists. Of some surprise is the capital of Thailand coming second unless you know that this aptly named city has a notorious red light district where there are live sex shows in bars with associated girl prostitutes and masseurs, lady boys etc. – all common place. Siam is perhaps too far away for UK teenagers but not for middle aged foreign men. Magalluf doesn’t have a monopoly of anti-social behaviour in this or any other country.
I do believe that the overall reputation of Majorca is being damaged but not that of Magalluf. I expect bookings there will increase exactly because of the infamous video. My own Can Pastilla had similar problems in the late 70s and early 80s with of a couple of hundred holiday makers doing a Congo pub crawl down the main streets at 2 a.m. It doesn’t now. How did Can Pastilla solve the problem? It didn’t. Hotel prices went up and the tour companies moved their tourists elsewhere, firstly to Arenal then for similar reasons onto Magalluf. Arenal now looks abandoned while Can Pastilla is described in TripAdvisor as a quiet Spanish village – somewhat geriatric!
So perhaps we can move the problems but not remove them. Of relevance to those here calling for stricter laws on these types of activities it should be noted that ALL those mentioned in Bangkok are illegal plus drug importing can carry the death penalty. Human nature is what it is, especially when on holiday. The veterans of the Daily B will know this from their days in Calle Apuntadors.
Why not think outside the box? From a business point of view if we can’t beat them why not join them - literally! Choose an isolated Cala. Wall it in. Move Punta Balena there and install a new Patpong (these Thais have a way with place names). High speed busses could race their tourists to the new resort Magapong and confine them there until the next Saturday morning when they’d be express shipped back to the airport while fire trucks with high pressure pumps hose down the whole area before a new load arrives on Saturday evening. At a single blow we’d help our local government in achieving three of their aims.
l
1. solving the Magalluf problem
l
2. going up market
l
3. getting the "street girls" out of sight
Mike Lillico
Playa de Palma