Salou, Spain Bans Scantily-Clad Tourists

Spain has gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to Europeans bathing (and hanging out) topless. The resort town of Salou, south of Barcelona, has a notorious reputation for being a haven for drunken British students and other northern European tourists to visit and lounge in little more than a bikini. No more! In an effort to clean up its rep, the small town will begin fining shirtless or bikini-clad tourists (or residents, for that matter) up to 300 Euros, according to the Telegraph.

The new law is in direct reaction to "Saloufest," an annual party organized by university sports clubs in which 5,000 British college students crowded into the town this spring. Residents were appalled at "streets running with vomit"; paramedics treated around a dozen tourists with alcohol-related illnesses and made numerous arrests.

As Alberto del Hierro, one of the town's Tourism councilors, told the Telegraph: "It is not normal to go the market with your packet [haha, he meant "package"] on show or round the tourist sites in a thong. One shouldn't be allowed to walk the streets or enter public buildings in unseemly apparel. It gives the city a low-class look."

The town has even created posters showing stick figures in bathing suits with a red "no-no" line throughout the city in hotels, restaurants and bars in preparation for summer crowds.