Magaluf ‘Carnage’ controversy dampens seasonal holiday interest

After a spate of bad headlines, web searches for holidays to Magaluf have increased by just 24 per cent over the past week, a substantially smaller seasonal increase than 39 per cent rise that normally occurs at this point in the year.

It is thought that the lesser seasonal response is a result of Magaluf’s profile in the press recently over alcohol, drugs, bar crawls, public sex acts, violence and a tragic balcony fall. The destination has been the subject of considerably controversy in the wake of newspaper headlines specifically concerning  the ‘Carnage’ bar crawl, after an incident in which an 18-year-old girl was video-recorded performing sex acts on more than 20 men in public.

Local authorities a planning to launch a £400,000 PR campaign in order to clean up the destination’s image and Spanish tourism officials are due to meet with British embassy representatives, ostensibly in a panic about the fortunes of the island as a holiday destination suffering as a result of the media coverage.

Trivago’s data show that travel whilst interest has increased since the heavy criticism of the Carnage bar crawl from 4th July onward, the week-on-week rise in searches is normally higher.

When searches during the week in question (4th July to 10th July) were compared to searches during the previous week (27th June to 3rd July), an increase of 24 per cent was found. During the same period in 2013 the increase was 39 per cent.