Palma.—Yesterday morning, council officials ordered that Plaza Pitiusas, at the bottom of Punta Ballena and next to BCM, be closed and that the seven bars in the square dismantle all their sound and lighting systems and stages.
The bars are allowed to remain open and continue operating while they take the necessary action to ensure that they all comply with the municipal laws - especially noise.
Should, for any reason, any of the bars be unable to comply with the noise regulations, then they will be banned from playing any music until they have resolved the problem.
This is the first crackdown Calvia Council has ordered since the sex game video went viral ten days ago attracting the attention of the global and national media.
One senior member of the British tourist industry told the Bulletin yesterday that the Balearics need not have paid anything over the weekend for the postponed publicity campaign because Magalluf was all over the British press, and it didn’t cost the authorities a cent.
Unfortunately, the headlines were not quite what the Balearics wanted and Magalluf was also making big news in the local and Spanish newspapers and on television and the fact that the disorder and behaviour in Magalluf is attracting so much domestic attention is unusual and hurts.
Sources for Calvia Council said that they intend to take any action they can to install some order in the resort and that will begin by stepping up inspections and enforcing the municipal laws and new norms are going to be introduced to enable the council to get even tougher.
Those, however, will probably not be in place this summer, although they will be for next summer which is what the Balearic Government and the Spanish Tourist Board is now focusing on with the publicity campaign to encourage ‘responsible tourism’ in Magalluf.
The campaign was due to have started over the weekend, but was initially postponed for a week to ten days. Yesterday it was revealed that the campaign may not be launched until August.
Another problem the council intends to investigate is the so-called drinking excursions to Magalluf which are being organised in other resorts around the island.
Apparently hundreds of young people are being bussed in and out of the resort every night adding to the massive concentration of people.