A beautiful village dubbed Spain's answer to Mykonos is on the cusp of out-right banning tourists - as under 200 full-time occupants have finally had enough. Locals in Binibeca Vell, a picture-perfect fishing village on the southern tip of Menorca , voted in May to chain off their streets to visitors between 8pm and 11am. But now they are holding a referendum to stop tourists visiting altogether, permanently keeping people out of their cobblestone alleyways and whitewashed homes.
The village of just 195 homeowners sees more than 800,000 visitors a year, an average of over 2,000 visitors a day. Residents have long complained how rowdy holidaymakers overrun Binibeca Vell during the summer season and ruin their peace in search of a holiday snap. 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.
The village website urges visitors to “avoid uncivil 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”. But not all in Binibeca Vell want tourists gone. Oscar Monge, President of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, has insisted they are welcome and the new rules are not designed to wreck anyone's livelihood.
He told the Mail that most villagers backed the new rules as a “question of common sense”. He accused Menorca counc.