Porto cracks down on late-night drinks sales
New rules are being imposed from today which will limit the sale of alcohol in certain public spaces in the Portuguese city of Porto between 9pm and 8am.
Porto is well-known as a city where alcoholic drinks are a key part of its culture, especially due to the historic presence of Port houses along the Douro river. It is also becoming an increasingly-popular tourist destination, with the number of visitors jumping from 4.8 million to 5.9 million between 2022 and 2023 – both being a significant increase on the pre-pandemic (2019) level of 3.7 million.
With greater visitor numbers comes greater concern about public behaviour, especially if they may be drinking to excess.
In an update to restrictions first imposed in 2023, much of downtown Porto will fall under the ‘Containment Zone’.
According to national news outlet The Portugal News, supermarkets, souvenir shops and cellar doors in this zone will not be able to sell alcoholic drinks between the hours of 9pm and 8am.
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By contrast, on-trade sales, through bars, restaurants and nightclubs, will still be permitted.
Filipa Correia Pinto, Porto’s councillor for economic activities and inspection, argued that late-night sales of alcoholic drinks was “causing harm and having an impact on urban security” and that the new policy would “strengthen people’s sense of security and to guarantee the organisation of public spaces”.
Pinto added that new punishments for establishments which break the law are being considered.
“What we noticed is that the successive application of fines did not dissuade economic agents from continuing to violate the rules, because paying the fine was worth it, because the fines were low,” she stated. Instead, the “immediate” closure of shops which don’t stick to the rules is on the cards.
Porto is not the only part of Iberia to bring in a booze ban of sorts – the Balearics also brought in some prohibitive measures last year.
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