The Acotur tourist businesses association and the ABONE association of nightlife businesses are demanding that regulations are enforced in order to stamp out so-called tourism of excesses in Magalluf. The associations insist that Calvia town hall applies the bylaw governing bar crawls. Despite the prohibition of these “drinking excursions”, there are PR ticketeros still selling bar crawls, while there are also bars providing discos when they don’t have licences.
The two associations, along with other representatives from the tourism sector, are part of a nightlife committee that was set up by the town hall in early December. This forum will meet at least once a month, but Jesús Sánchez, the president of ABONE, describes this as “insufficient” and “too late”. He wants to see greater political will and commitment in seeking solutions to problems which have existed for some twenty years.
Pepe Tirado, the Acotur president, applauds the town hall’s intentions in having created this committee and will be using the forum to press for greater limitations on alcohol promotions and for a moratorium on shops that currently have these promotions.
The modernisation of the complementary offer of shops, bars, restaurants and clubs is a matter that affects both ABONE and Acotur. Sánchez and Tirado agree that there needs to be more institutional assistance in achieving this. Tax incentives are required in order to undertake the conversion and modernising of establishments. Subsidies which the town hall has announced are “few and far between”.
In this regard, Sánchez and Tirado have responded to remarks from Mauricio Carballeda, the president of the Palmanova-Magalluf Hoteliers Association. He criticised the complementary offer for failing to tackle obsolescence, comparing this with redevelopments by the hotel sector. They note that they had asked for the same type of facilities made available to the hotel industry in the 2012 tourism law, and which allowed a ten per cent increase in the number of hotel places.