Ibiza slams British Consulate's tourist safety posters claiming 'walking home alone could cost you your life'

Posters put up in the popular resort town of Sant Antoni de Portmany show price tags next to warnings about what not to do on the island to show 'what it could cost' not following advice.

This shows a figure of 5,000 pounds (around 6,250 euros) next to the heading, 'Check you're covered before you hit the road', telling tourists they should make sure their insurance policy covers them before hiring a quad or a moped.

According to the price tags next to the other three warnings, not heeding these 'could cost you your life', the posters claim.

In light of the reckless alcohol-fuelled stunt known as 'balconing' – where northern European youths try to jump from their hotel windows into the pool, a practice which killed nine tourists last year – the Consulate tells visitors to Ibiza, 'don't fool around on balconies. Use your balcony sensibly and safely, so the view you see won't be your last'.

Councillors and regional government members concede the British authorities have a point in this respect, but take exception to the other dire predictions on the posters.

“Don't walk home alone: Stick with your friends. Don't walk home alone or with someone you don't trust. Price: It could cost you your life,” claims the flyer.

Additionally, it reads: “Keep an eye on your drink: It only takes a second for your night out to turn into a nightmare. Price: It could cost you your life.”

As well as politicians, bosses of hotels, bars, restaurants and other tourism-related industries call the campaign 'suicidal', 'exaggerated', 'pathetic', 'brutal' and 'counter-productive'.

They all complain the campaign – which has so far seen 300 posters pinned up and 1,500 flyers placed in hotels and other business premises – gives the impression of Ibiza being 'a highly-dangerous place' for young adults on holiday.

In practice, violent crime – especially on the streets after dark and by strangers – is statistically very low indeed in Spain, which is listed as one of Europe's safest countries.

Particularly compared to the UK where street violence has, on paper, increased in the last decade, Spain is said to be a trouble-free nation to visit on holiday.

Indeed, Consular staff throughout the country say they spend more time issuing emergency travel documents to replace lost or stolen passports than practically any other transaction.

But authorities and traders in Ibiza worry that a campaign 'telling holidaymakers that if they walk home alone they could die' is likely to choke them off travelling to Spain's islands.

And the warnings are not even based upon facts, say town councils in Ibiza.

Secretary-general of the PP in Sant Antoni, Joan Pantaleoni – who also owns a bar in the so-called West End which he describes as 'the epicentre of the wildest British tourism every summer – said: “I think it's perfectly okay to worry about holidaymakers' safety, but what is certainly not okay is when they tell lies.”

He recalled there have never been any cases on record of Ibiza tourists' walking home alone or leaving their drinks unattended 'costing them their lives' – and in any case, says Pantaleoni, “the greatest dangers faced by Brits in Ibiza are, in fact, other Brits in Ibiza.”

The UK foreign office's website, www.fco.gov.uk, says most cases of drink-spiking and date-rape affecting British tourists in the Balearic Islands are carried out by their compatriots.

A similar campaign has been launched in Benidorm (Alicante province), but without claiming that 'walking home alone could cost you your life', say hotel and bar owners.

The British Consulate for the Balearic Islands, based in Palma de Mallorca, issued a statement saying it had launched the same campaign in other Mediterranean destinations including Cyprus, Bulgaria and Greece, 'without any complaints'.

And rather than putting holidaymakers off, the Consulate claims the campaign 'reinforces Ibiza's and other resorts' reputations as excellent places to visit'.

Sant Antoni council does not agree and has ordered the Consulate to change the wording on its flyers and posters, but the Consulate has refused to do so.

In light of their 'lack of cooperation', in the town hall's view, councillors and traders have withdrawn all flyers from their premises and public buildings and taken down all the posters.

Instead, the town will 'continue with the tourist safety campaign it has successfully run since 2011', according to the council.