German tourists in Playa de Palma. | Teresa Ayuga

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Michael Bormann is the proprietor of the Deutsches Eck restaurant. It is on C. Miquel Pellisa in Playa de Palma, a street that is better known as Bierstrasse. He says that the "party spirit" this year is "very extreme". "After the pandemic, it is clear that you have to catch up. However, some German holidaymakers are misbehaving to excess. We are a restaurant, not a pub. It seems that many people cannot understand this."

He believes that the holidaymaker profile has changed. "In June there used to be a lot of couples or families with children. This year, football clubs, sports teams and young people wanting to party clearly predominate."

Playa de Palma is covered by the tourism of excesses law. It is also what Palma town hall classifies as a 'zone of special touristic intervention', meaning hefty fines for antisocial behaviour and specific police presence. Yet businesses say that the excesses are worse than ever.

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Beatrice Ciccardini, proprietor of the Zur Krone restaurant, reckons that "it's never been as bad as this year" and summer hasn't even started. She says that "there is no end to the drinking; some are still drunk on the streets at nine in the morning".

There are plenty of tourists, but restaurants aren't necessarily feeling the benefits. Juan Miguel Ferrer of Palma Beach, the initiative to promote quality businesses in Playa de Palma, says that this is partly due to higher prices. "Holidaymakers are stocking up on food from the supermarket or are eating at fast-food establishments."

While there are businesspeople arguing that things are worse than ever this season, Ferrer was saying much the same last October. "It has possibly been one of the worst years in terms of drunken tourism, leaving a lamentable image. The abandonment by Palma town hall has been total."