Drunk Brits Could be Banned from Spanish Islands

The world’s truly had it with British tourists: We’re being kicked off planes for K-holing, they’ve had to ban people from drinking duty-free booze on flights to Ibiza, and Amsterdam even launched a dedicated deterrent campaign in March urging us to “stay away”. But despite it all, Brits are still causing chaos abroad, to the point where an outright ban is now on the cards from some countries. 

Regional governments from the Balearic Islands – including Ibiza and Majorca – have come together to discuss ways to blacklist British tourists from their cities. According to the islands’ Head of Tourism, Jaume Bauza, those who break strict new rules could be sent on a plane home and barred from re-entering under the proposed laws. “Nothing’s being ruled out or confirmed at this stage,” Bauza said, “the main thing is to target [...] all those people who behave in a way that is not tolerable.”

A drunken tourism decree was already agreed in 2020 for some regions, which includes fines of up to £50,000 for tourists caught leaping off their hotel balconies (it’s called “balconing”, FYI) and limits on the amount of booze served at all-inclusive hotels. There have also been crackdowns on pub crawls, happy hours and two-for-one cheap drink offers in places like Magaluf. The new laws would expand these penalties into more regions and allow for even tougher measures like barring people from returning to the islands. 

The proposed laws are yet to be confirmed or fully scrutinised by lawyers, and any attempts to blacklist tourists are likely to come up against EU free movement legislation for visitors from EU member states. Of course, this doesn’t count much for British nationals. Bad news for your hen dos, good news for literally everyone else.