Beautiful Menorca village holds referendum on banning vacationers

A Menorcan village dubbed the ‘Spanish Mykonos’ will hold a referendum on banning tourists completely on Friday.

In May, locals in the picture-perfect fishing village nestled in southern Menorca, in the Balearic islands, said they do not want any visitors before 11am or after 8pm in a bid to stop selfie-hunting tourists trampling through their private properties. 

Outside these hours, residents chain off the 22 entrances to their private community, which is iconic for its narrow cobbled alleys meandering through its whitewashed houses.

Now, its 195 homeowners will vote on Friday to decide whether to take the extreme measure of banning tourists altogether, of which there are 800,000 a year.

Residents have long complained how hordes of rowdy tourists overrun the village during the summer season and ruin their peace and privacy in search of an Instagram-worthy holiday snap.

Pictured is the village of Binibeca Vell, dubbed the ‘Spanish Mykonos’

A hoard of tourists are pictured crowding a small alley in the village to take photos in front of the quaint white stone houses

A young woman poses for a photograph on private property in the village

Residents have long complained how hordes of rowdy tourists overrun the village

Visitors are urged to ‘avoid uncivic attitudes’ by refraining from ‘entering the houses or climbing stairs or balconies’ and to help keep the village clean by ‘using the bins and keeping the walls white’

On the village website, fed-up locals have taken to sharing photographs of tourists disrespecting their private homes, with one shown splayed out on a stairwell and another having scaled a balcony.

Online, visitors are urged to ‘avoid uncivic attitudes’ by refraining from ‘entering the houses or climbing stairs or balconies’ and to help keep the village clean by ‘using the bins and keeping the walls white’.

Worried business owners warn a total ban would be disastrous for them as they rely heavily on the trade from tourists visiting the village.

Oscar Monge, President of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, has insisted tourists are welcome in the village and the new rules are not designed to wreck anyone’s livelihood.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, he said most villagers backed the new rules as a ‘question of common sense’.

He claimed that last year there was a municipal deal in place that allowed tourists into Binibeca Vell from midday to 9pm but accused the island council of scuppering it by failing to properly regulate the bus loads of tourists arriving in the village and withdrawing a €15,000 subsidy to help clean up rubbish left by holidaymakers.

Mr Monge added: ‘I think the measures are having the desired effects as far as homeowners here are concerned with regards to the amount of people during the hours of rest.

‘The regulation of the tourist coaches is improving and there seems to be a better understanding of the situation among tour operators who operate them. 

The residents of a Menorcan village dubbed the ‘Spanish Mykonos’ have denied declaring ‘war’ on tourists by chaining up their streets at night. A caretaker fixing the chains across the lanes

British holidaymakers said the ‘anti-tourist’ measures made them feel unwelcome and would make them think twice about visiting the Balearics again

Local resident Maita, 63, who splits her time between the village and Barcelona, told MailOnline how big groups of noisy tourists have caused chaos in the village

‘We are really happy that tourists come to Binibeca Vell.

‘But it’s not normal that the island council is charging [up to €4 per person for tourist tax] and doesn’t want to help an iconic tourist destination like our village, where five of the photos you see from Menorca are from here and then takes away the €15,000 grant we were getting to pay a private company to remove visitors’ rubbish.

‘Things reach a stage where people say ‘enough is enough’ and that’s what’s happened.

‘Tourists are welcome during the permitted timetable, they can visit Binibeca Vell free of charge and outside of that timetable they can visit the restaurants which are all outside the area that’s chained off after 8pm.

‘We don’t get any help to keep our community looking the way it is.

‘It costs us around €100,000 a year to keep the houses as white as they are because the facades get blackened with people putting their hands on the walls.

‘If we weren’t getting 800,000 visitors a year, we’d probably have to paint only every two or possibly every three years.