Tossa de Mar on Catalonia’s Costa Brava boasts beautiful beaches, seafront restaurants and a walled old town, but another increasingly common sight is exercising authorities - hordes of drunk and scantily-clad tourists celebrating stag and hen parties.
The town is cracking down on such festivities, banning them completely during August and slapping strict regulations on them during the rest of the year. “They come here and do what ever they want. It can’t be like that,” said the mayor, Gisela Saladich Parés.
Authorities can do little about individual groups who visit Tossa de Mar to celebrate upcoming nuptials, but the new regulations take aim at the town’s growing cohort of party planners who offer organised stag and hen dos that include activities ranging from booze-filled boat cruises to paintball fights and treasure hunts.
From now on, party planners will have to apply for an annual permit, and provide police with a detailed schedule for each night they promote along with the number of participants. The organisers of any parties that go ahead without the correct authorisation risk fines and being shut down by police.
The town was prompted to act after locals complained about stag and hen party participants urinating in the street and singing loudly in the town’s squares at 5am.
The idea is not necessarily to curtail the partying, said Saladich Parés, but rather to keep it out of the town’s public spaces. “They can be on a boat having the party of their life, that’s fine, but when they get off the boat they should walk calmly to the restaurant or hotel.” Those who disturb others by singing, shouting or whistling face fines of up to €600 (£480).
Tossa de Mar is the latest town to make the headlines as Spanish authorities engage in a conversation about the kind of tourism they want to attract. In August there were protests over three naked Italians in Barcelona, as residents railed against what they called “drunken tourism”.
