Pub crawl organiser under fire for tourist sex act
The organiser of a Majorca pub crawl which last week resulted in a teenage girl from Northern Ireland performing sex acts on 24 men in public has refused to apologise for the stunt.
The 18-year-old was filmed while on the Carnage pub crawl in the popular resort of Magaluf, with the footage immediately going viral on social media.
Paul Smith, head of Carnage Events Magaluf, says he wasn't fully aware of what was happening and admits he should have been more in control.
But he's refused to apologise to the girl's family.
"I've made mistakes, I'm human and I'm here to rectify them and make sure this doesn't happen again, (but) why should I apologise?" he told 5 News.
"What have I done wrong? I've made mistakes but I wasn't the one who forced her to get to the floor.
"I'm not going to apologise to the family – I'm sorry."
Mr Smith says he was disgusted by the video but denied that people heard egging the girl on were his representatives.
"I was disgusted by it – disgusted by the young lady doing it," he said.
"I can't say that my reps encouraged that because that's not what happened.
"She should be spoken to by her parents. Is it something to do with upbringing?
"I feel sorry for the girl but Carnage never forced her to do what she did, as you can see in the video there was no one there holding her or forcing her, nothing like that."
Authorities on the Spanish island say they are cracking down on pub crawls after last week's incident.
The mayor of Calvia, the region which includes Magaluf and five other resorts popular with Britons, says he has passed a law "giving us tighter control over the operation of pub crawl organisers".
Manuel Onieva says a police investigation has started into last week's incident, and that he wanted to "express my total rejection and anger at the activities which were carried out in a video which is currently on the social media circuit".
Carnage Magaluf describes itself on its website as the "leader in Magaluf party entertainment".
The company advertises a three-event package including "barcrawl, boat party and jungle sessions".
The bar crawl is a four-nights-a-week event which includes "four hours of unlimited drinking, four hours of unlimited free shots and a free Carnage vest/T-shirt".
The Calvia region, which also includes the resort of Palma Nova, is visited by between 1.6 million and 2 million visitors a year, of whom around one million are Britons.
British visits to the region are worth an estimated 800 million euros ($A1.20 billion) a year to the local economy.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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