Holidaymakers in Spain warned of £170 fine as popular holiday hotspot clamps down on illegal street vendors
Authorities in Torrevieja are cracking down on illegal street vendors
GETTY
Holidaymakers in Spain have been warned that a new fine will be imposed in a crackdown on street vendors.
Torrevieja will be ramping up efforts to stop the traders as it sends out undercover police officers to fine anyone who buys their products.
Visitors caught purchasing fake goods along the city’s main promenade could be fined up to £170.
The merchants typically sell items between Hombre de Mar, to the end of Avenida de los Marineros at Playa de Cura.
Illegal street vendors line seaside promenades in several Spanish cities
GETTYThe vendors also line promenades in other major cities like Barcelona - sometimes urging tourists to buy fake designer eyewear.
Eduardo Jorge Dolón Sánchez, the mayor of the City of Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca coast, has requested an increase in police this summer as the new law is imposed.
The ban comes on the back of allegations from shop owners who allege they are losing up to 30 per cent of their business to street vendors.
There is speculation that authorities in Costa Del Sol are also considering similar restrictions.
In other cities, tourists have become the target of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour.
A new ordinance is being introduced that could see misbehaved visitors fined £2,500, as the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, clamps down on rowdy behaviour from tourists.
Timon van Basten, a tour guide in Spain and founder of Travel Spain 24, told GB News he has noticed local unrest in areas like Mallorca, where citizens complain of issues like "public drunkenness, noise complaints, and not respecting cultural norms".
A new law will soon prohibit tourists from appearing "on the public thoroughfare without clothing or only in their underwear or with clothing or accessories representing humans genitals or with dolls or other accessories of a sexual nature".
Maurici Jimenez, the mayor of Platja D’Aro, said: "These attitudes have an impact on the community’s coexistence and we need to fight against them.
"The Spanish town is one of several cities calling for better regulation of social behaviour from visitors."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Local business owners have alleged they are losing business to the vendors
GETTY
Several cities across Spain claim they are struggling to curb the volume of stag and hen dos during peak seasons.
Some have started prohibiting people from going shirtless or topless in areas away from the beach.
This restriction is already in place in Barcelona, where it is a requirement to cover up in certain public places, like shops.
Visitors who bare their torso in restaurants could be fined up to £500, according to the Foreign Office.