Spanish city to tell tourists: “Keep your shirt on!”

Palma’s officials are imploring the city’s male tourists to keep their shirts on

Officials in the capital city of Majorca have drawn up proposals to introduce a new law banning shirtless men from wandering Palma’s ancient streets.

The new civic law plans are part of a wider campaign to clean up the city’s image. Palma plays host to hordes of holidaying Brits, Irish, Germans and Scandinavians every summer, and has developed a reputation as something of a hedonistic no-go area for tourists not keen on encountering squawking hen parties or raucous stag dos…

So in order to tackle this image problem head on, officials are preparing to introduce a series of fines designed to coerce holidaymakers into behaving better. The chief change is likely to be the proposed €600 (ca. GBP490) fine levied on men who walk around the city shirtless after leaving the beach.

“Obviously the ban won’t apply to the boardwalk or streets adjacent to the beach,” said Palma’s tourism head Alvaro Gijon. “The ban is for the city centre, shops, museums, public transport and public benches.”

Gijon added that he had never seen this problem in other leading tourism destinations in Europe, although citing Amsterdam, London, Paris and Berlin as shining examples of sartorial sensibility kind of misses the point that Palma is hot, and the others (generally) are not.

Speaking to The Local newspaper, an unnamed spokesperson for Luxury Majorca Holidays travel agency called the proposed fines “excessive”, adding that the locals were as much to blame as tourists when it comes to bearing one’s torso.

The proposed anti-social measures extend to clamping down on ‘balconing’, too: a recent phenomenon that sees often inebriated British holidaymakers jump between balconies – a foolish pastime that has led to a handful of high-profile deaths in recent years.

The sight of the shirtless, slightly sunburnt topless tourist is commonplace throughout holiday resorts right around Europe. Palma’s insistence on tackling this ‘problem’ head on may seem rash, but the city officials do have a salient point.

Away from the immediate vicinity of the beach, there really is no need to bare one’s torso in shops, restaurants, cafés or bars, and even less so on public transport or in museums. It will be interesting to see whether Palma’s policy is successful and, if so, whether other Spanish cities – or even those farther afield – follow suit.