According to local officials, hoteliers are signing up to plans to replace “rowdy British singletons” with European families, with 95% of the town’s hotels turning down 18-30 package deals, The Times reports.
Efthymios Moutrakis, deputy mayor of Malia has blamed tour operators for fuelling the problem by selling holidays “branding an image completely different to what Malia really is”.
Moutrakis told The Times: “Malia isn’t about sex, drugs and everything goes. It’s the prime tourist destination in Crete, bringing in millions of euros to the island.”
Malia is renowned for its parties and nightclubs and was also the setting for the first Inbetweeners Movie in 2011.
However, local residents and government officials say that have had enough of the "rowdy" British visitors and the island is now hoping to reinvent the town’s image as a safe and friendly holiday destination for German, Austrian and Dutch families, The Times reports.
Most hotels have now reportedly stopped accepting group bookings that exceed three rooms, blocking 10,000 potential UK visitors.
One prominent hotel owner told The Times: “We have nothing against these kids and the British people as a whole.
“But these tour groups are operating on the verge of criminal negligence. With a whistle in their hands, they lead teenagers already in a state of drunken stupor from their hotels to organised bar crawls through as many as 17 nightclubs in the town.”
The news comes after an 18-year-old British woman fell into a coma after inhaling a legal high during a night out in Malia earlier this month.
