Major blow to Brit tourists as Majorca looks to shut them out in summertime

MAJORCA tourism bosses have revealed they are not interested in welcoming British holidaymakers to the island next summer.

 Speaking to The Sun at the World Travel Market in London this week, Lucia Escribano, Director of Tourism, said: “We are not interested in promoting the island in summer.

2

“We are trying to encourage tourists to visit outside the summer season to enjoy sports or our cultural attractions and museums.

 “We want to focus more on out-of-season activities than sun and beaches.”

The island’s ruling council has announced drastic plans to tackle overcrowding after this summer saw protests across the popular holiday island as tourists flooded back.

Plans are being drawn up that will see the compulsory purchase of lower-quality hotels and mass tourism businesses like bars and clubs.

 Escribano said: “We are limiting the number of beds on the island. We want quality not quantity. At the moment we have 300,000 hotel beds and we want less, not more.

 “If a hotel wants to make improvements, build a spa or new restaurant, we will insist they remove hotel beds to gain permission.

 “We are trying to decrease the number of beds in order to provide a better experience for visitors.

 “We are not interested in having the budget tourists from the UK, we don’t care if they go elsewhere to Greece and Turkey.”

 Tourism bosses are also looking to welcome high-spending guests from other nations including Germany and Scandinavia.

 She added: “We are also interested in having less people from the UK and more from other parts of Europe where there is better airline connectivity.”

  Her remarks come as the island announced plans to limit numbers in the summer with fines for villa or apartment owners renting out properties ‘under the radar’ –

 The tourism plan will also seek to stamp out rowdy behaviour with two star hotels and ‘excess tourism’ businesses 

 But owners of businesses at risk of closure have vowed to fight plans for compulsory purchase, arguing it will ruin hundreds of family businesses.

 The new moves are just part of an intensive campaign to tackle the worst excesses of drunken tourists.

The island has already introduced heavy fines for rowdy behaviour and a ban on pub crawls, booze cruises and excessive drinking in certain areas of the island.

 In Magaluf, holidaymakers at all-inclusive hotels are allowed no more than six drinks a day.

2