Goodbye to drunken routes: Barcelona will ban them throughout the city for 24 hours a day.

BarcelonaBarcelona City Council will extend the ban on booze tours throughout the city and 24 hours a day. This was announced this Wednesday by the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Jordi Valls, who believes these types of activities—which consist of promoting alcohol consumption through a tour of a series of establishments—are not welcome in the city: "We are not interested in some travel websites presenting these tours as experiences in the city," he explained.

These practices, known as pub crawling These consist of signing up with other people for tours organized by promoters where the objective is to consume one or more drinks in different places, relatively quickly, and then immediately move on to the next establishment. Therefore, they were identified as "a risk factor" that generates neighborhood disturbance, increases pressure on public spaces, and can lead to crimes or traffic violations. Valls said that they currently focus mainly on the Gothic Quarter and Barceloneta.

Nighttime itineraries around different bars or entertainment venues They have been banned since 2012 in the Ciutat Vella district., a measure that Valls believes has worked "very well." At the beginning of June, the City Council already moved to extend the ban on these night routes in the Eixample, but the measure only applied from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Now, the council is preparing a more forceful rule that aims to ban the pub crawling throughout the Catalan capital, 24 hours a day. Regarding the ban that has been in place in the Eixample district for several months, Valls stated that "compliance was high" and the problem experienced a significant decrease.

Local police monitoring

For his part, Francesc Sanchís, a corporal in the Guardia Urbana, has stated that the local police are closely monitoring this issue through social media and complaints from residents: "We set up plainclothes patrols to locate these groups of people, who often distinguish themselves by wearing wristbands during the route or because they are led by one or more people." Fines for organizing these activities can reach up to 900 euros, not including related fines that may result, such as disturbing neighbors or drinking in public.

The city council has already initially approved the decree with which it aims to "guarantee citizen coexistence, neighborhood relaxation, and public health." This includes prohibiting the promotion, organization, sale, or implementation of these routes. A public information period of twenty working days now begins, in case any objections are raised, before definitively approving the decree, which will be in effect for four years.

What's up with the bar runners?

According to municipal sources, this measure aims to put an end to the promotion of alcohol for profit. For this reason, these activities may be sanctioned when registration requires payment and the promoters have agreed with certain venues that participants may receive drinks they have previously paid for when registering for the activity. This would include bar crawls that operate in this manner, which, a priori, would not be able to operate. However, it remains to be seen how the City Council will react to these popular activities—once the measure comes into effect—now that Barcelona is facing a period of major festivals in different districts of the city.