Now British holidaymakers in Spain face £170 fines if they buy cheap souvenirs from sellers on the beaches and streets – as the war on tourists continues

As the war on tourists continues, British holidaymakers are flooding in Spain They could be forced to pay a £170 fine if they buy souvenirs from unlicensed vendors on the beaches and streets.

Plainclothes officers will patrol the streets of the Costa Blanca in southeastern Spain to hand out punishments to unsuspecting tourists.

The popular holiday destination is cracking down on illegal street vendors, known locally as ‘manteros’ or top manta rays, as they typically display their wares on a blanket.

From fake ‘designer’ handbags to counterfeit watches, tourists who buy products from unlicensed ‘manteros’ will face an immediate fine of up to €200, which works out to around £170.

The mayor of Torrevieja called for more police officers over the summer to enforce the new rules.

A busy beach in Benidorm, part of the Costa Blance in Spain

The mayor of Torrevieja has called for more police officers over the summer to enforce a crackdown on unlicensed vendors.

During the high season, Torrevieja’s population grows to over 500,000 The mirror.

There have also been calls from the nearby southern region of the Costa del Sol for tougher penalties against tourists who buy from wandering street vendors, known as ‘looky looky men’.

They are notorious for selling counterfeit items to beachgoers in Spain, often without a permit.

Local shop owners in the coastal town of Benalmadena are expected to lose between 20 and 30 percent of their profits to these unlicensed sellers, according to the local Association of Traders and Businessmen.

The move comes after a series of repressive actions on several Spanish islands in the fight against overpopulation and huge spikes in tourism.

New plans for alcohol-free streets were unveiled by the conservative Partido Popular government.

Drunk holidaymakers will no longer be able to drink on public streets in Magaluf.

Fines for failing to comply with the ban on alcohol consumption on public roads will range from €500 to €1,500 (£430 to £1,290).

These new measures were fully supported by the mayor of Calvia, Juan Antonio Amengual, who stated that they would make the island a safer place for everyone to enjoy.

The new laws will be in effect until at least December 2027.

The mayor of Magaluf has welcomed a series of measures to put an end to drinking on the streets

A string of Spanish islands have launched a crackdown on overtourism as they face severe overcrowding and huge spikes in drunken holidaymakers.

Drunk holidaymakers will no longer be able to drink on public streets in Magaluf

A view of Palma beach, full of tourists and locals in Mallorca

Last week, a holiday village in Menorca called ‘Spanish Mykonos’ threatened to ban all tourists after previously telling them they could only visit between 11am and 8pm so they could enjoy their breakfast.

In Menorca, graffiti telling tourists to ‘go home’ has also appeared on walls, while last year in Marbella the tires of cars with British number plates were slashed.

Ibiza also became the latest hotspot for Spanish holidaymakers to get involved increasing protests against tourism that have broken out across the country.

‘We are only against the massification of the type of tourism that comes to our island.

“The island is saturated, mainly due to illegal rentals, and our 572 square kilometers cannot take anymore,” she added.

Similar protests have been observed in other popular destinations.

Furious residents of Tenerife went on hunger strike in an attempt to express their anger.

On April 20, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the Canary Islands to protest the problems caused by mass tourism and demand that their politicians take action.

The words ‘Go Home Tourist’ were scrawled in English on a wall beneath a real estate billboard in Nou Llevant, Mallorca

Graffiti can be seen in the Balearic Islands with the text ‘My misery, your paradise’

Protesters hold a banner reading ‘Mallorca is not for sale’ during a protest against the massification of tourism in Mallorca

A woman shouts next to a banner with the word ‘tourism’ during an anti-tourism demonstration in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Mallorca-based hotel chef Joan Pla recently warned that protests against mass tourism in the Canary Islands could be repeated in the Balearic Islands.

He claimed that the number of houses built for local residents and instead bought by foreigners as holiday properties was a problem.

And he complained that islands like Mallorca, where he is based, were experiencing the influx of too many people at certain times of the year.