Spanish police confiscate tourist loungers and umbrellas - and charge £210 to get them back from police station
13 August 2024, 15:38 | Updated: 13 August 2024, 15:40
Police have joined the war on tourists in Spain by confiscating the loungers and umbrellas of sun seekers who set up early then leave their belongings.
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Popular resorts on the Spanish mainland and in the Balearic and Canary Islands have introduced fines for beachgoers who abandon their belongings for prolonged periods of time.
The loungers and umbrellas are then taken to a police station and tourists must pay the equivalent of £210 to retrieve them, according to the MailOnline.
It is the latest in a series of measures across Spain seeking to clamp down on tourists causing overcrowding in popular destinations.
Anti-tourism protesters targeted diners in Barcelona by spraying them with water guns before blocking exits to popular hotels.
Read More: Brits warned about two major changes to expect before travelling to Spain for holidays
Anti-tourist protesters squirt dining tourists with water pistols in Barcelona
In June, it was announced tourists could be hit with an £170 fine for buying from unlicensed beach vendors under new proposals.
Plain-clothed police will patrol the idyllic beaches in Torrevieja, south-eastern Spain, to snare tourists buying souvenirs from unlicensed sellers.
The mayor has called upon police to patrol the hotspots to enforce the new rules.
Spain’s Balearic Islands recently toughened up laws on street drinking and party boats in a bid to crack down on anti-social behaviour in tourist hotspots.
The stronger rules, based on legislation from 2020, will apply to tourist hotspots such as Playa de Palma, Magaluf in Majorca and Sant Antoni in Ibiza.
Under the expanded law, which comes into force on Saturday, people caught drinking outside of authorised areas could be fined between €500-1,500 (£430-1290).
There will also be a total ban on the sale of alcohol between 9:30pm and 8am in certain areas, such as Magaluf, Llucmajor, and Palma, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reported.
The ban will be in place until at least December 2027, according to reports.
The rules will also aim to toughen up pre-existing rules against party boats, as they will be banned from getting closer than one nautical mile (1.852km) of the designated areas.
