Objective Proficiency p 42. Magaluf hit rock bottom years ago so why the sudden outcry? Extra Reading

By annanicholas

Forgive my cynicism but when Spanish politicians and hoteliers begin bleating about their shock and horror at recent events in the Majorcan Jekyll and Hyde resort of Magaluf, I have to guffaw. Magaluf has been on the ropes and in steady decline for years and yet many have been only too happy to turn a blind eye while listening to the satisfying kerching of cash registers at the expense of hordes of excitable and impressionable British yoofs swamping the place annually.
Supposedly one can’t have one’s cake and eat it and yet it appears that many have done just that. But now it’s all gone belly up. While countless Magaluf residents, businesses and holidaymakers have complained bitterly in recent times about the violence, sexual depravity, prostitution, ‘balconing’ deaths and drugs and booze fuelled events that are destroying the resort, nothing has been done.
Recently British expat newspaper, the Majorca Daily Bulletin, highlighted Magaluf’s increasing problems with violent prostitution and crime and although backed by expat residents and bone fide businesses, the regional government – and for that matter – the local council, hardly reacted. And why would they when literally thousands of young, mostly British, tourists gravitate to the resort each year bringing with them much needed filthy lucre? Lip service has until now been the name of the game and one has to wonder whether global coverage of the latest outrage – a drunken 18 year old girl apparently performing sex acts on 24 strangers in a Magaluf bar – has finally shamed the regional government into action. While recent headlines across the globe screeched about the dire state of the resort it became impossible for the island’s politicians to keep their ostrich like heads firmly in the sand. A good thing, but isn’t it all too little too late?
The current mantra from Majorca’s local authorities is that Magaluf is soon to become an up-market resort. Hard though it might be to keep a straight face at such a pronouncement, there are those such as Spanish hotelier, Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, CEO of Melia Hotels, who is investing millions into renovating properties in the area in order to create fragrantly named ‘Calvia Beach’, the proposed new face to the bad boy resort. If the likes of Escarrer have their way, Magaluf will change irrevocably and only attract the right sort of tourism that doesn’t bring shame on the island. It’s a tough call and a risk but given universal opprobrium of the latest embarrassing Magaluf incident to hit the headlines, something quite evidently has to be done.
But of course there’s much irony in the way the regional government is handling matters. While Palma has introduced strict new laws that will force tourists to cover up when walking the streets or face incurring fines, Magaluf continues to escape the noose. Last week – in the light of shameful international media headlines – it was proposed by the current PP regional government that pub crawls in Magaluf should be restricted to just 50 people. Why allow them at all? It also proposed that owners of overcrowded bars might in the future incur fines of 300€, hardly a deterrent and how in truth would the regional government hope to police such an initiative?
So far I’m unconvinced that Majorca really knows what to do about its most wayward son. Yesterday a reader wrote to me and suggested blowing up the resort and starting from scratch which sounded a touch drastic but I got the drift. Surely what really needs to be done is for the Balearic regional government to get tough and to outlaw unscrupulous profiteering outfits operating in Magaluf that only exist to exploit young, unworldly – and often gormless – holidaymakers? It needs to wipe out prostitution, the drugs trade and booze fuelled bonanzas but of course in the real world we all know that’s as likely as Mary Poppins dropping by Magaluf’s Mallorca Rocks venue to give a rendition of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.