Month: October 2024

1. Ibiza Summer 24 was good for a few but tough for many. After the post pandemic, champagne popping boom we had the inevitable lull in proceedings (when the whole world realised they didn’t have to cram everything into a few months) and while the big businesses continued to flourish the secondary businesses continued to struggle. The average stay is getting shorter so tourists pre-plan to the last detail and can only cram in a finite number of experiences which is great if your business is on that particular list but not so good if it ain’t. Word of the season from business owners is ‘Rollercoaster’. From midweek with no one about and not much to do to packed weekends with not enough staff and unable to accommodate everyone. The current Ibiza business model can be bewildering. 

2. UNVRS will have a big effect on Ibiza’s clubland. In an already busy marketplace the world’s first ‘HYPERCLUB’ (who knew that was even a word) is set to open in May 2025 and the ripples will be felt far and wide. The mythical nightclub formerly known as Ku and then Privilege is having a 40 million euros facelift and with its new 8000 capacity The Night League will want to make a real statement after creating Ushuaia and Hï from a blank page and taking them into the upper echelons of world clubbing. This is TNL’s CEO Yann Pissenem’s legacy right here  – the biggest club in the world on the biggest party island in the world. It doesn’t get any bigger than this but the fallout could be spectacular for some. Look at the businesses that withered and died after Ushuaia changed the game in 2010. (Apologies for the overuse of the word BIG but this is…BIG).

3. Has the Ibiza housing crisis peaked? After almost a decade of this issue staring them squarely in the face, the local and regional governments are finally getting busy and bringing in new legislation to help with housing. Nothing will change overnight (when does it ever in Ibiza) but there seems to be a general acknowledgment that things can’t continue as they are with waste grounds and shorelines being converted into caravan parks and shanty towns popping up all over the island. It’s as bad as it’s ever been, the desire to live in Ibiza is as strong as ever but when nurses, doctors and police are leaving in droves citing housing issues then the situation is untenable and that’s where we’re at.

4. Ibiza’s continuing marginalisation of kids and families. It’s strange to think that Ibiza used to be the archetypal family resort. ‘Fiestaland’ in Playa den Bossa which included Ushuaia, Ushuaia Tower, Hard Rock Hotel and the Hotel Bahamas (before they were all renamed of course) plus Aguamar waterpark (remember that?) was a nirvana for those beautiful little ankle biters but this is now just a hazy, distant memory as Ibiza continues to worship at the church of disposable income. The new business model is solely lazered in on adults with cold hard cash to burn who come for a few days (so you don’t even have to be nice to them for too long). If you are a family then there’s a few all inclusive complexes scattered around the island at eye watering prices that are full to the rafters with screaming kids so while Mallorca doubles down trying to attract a family audience, Ibiza continues to distance itself from those pesky kids who get in the way of their parents waving their phones in the air and dining out at swanky overpriced restaurants and posting it all on social media.

5. Tourismophobia is an actual thing. Never mind that tourism is responsible for almost all of Ibiza’s economy and in 2020 we all saw exactly what happens when it’s taken away, the mass gatherings on the streets have started, mirroring those that have being taking place in other Spanish hotspots such as the Canary Islands. For now the ‘demands’ are quite reasonable such as limiting private jets (why not), banning large cruise boats (hell yeah), ending the commercialisation of beaches (err maybe but who’s going to bring me my 25 euro mojito?), restricting vehicles and improving public transport (yes please). However you get the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg with the real radicals waiting in the wings to stir the pot and call for a complete tourism ban so we can resurrect the salt industry. Whatever way you look at it, something has got to give and incidentally exactly where is all that tourist tax money being spent?

Honourable Mentions

•Cars may soon become a luxury item if the proposed clamp down (see what I did there) on excess vehicles comes to fruition so DON’T sell that clapped out old Ford Fiesta!

•Don’t wear an expensive watch on the island especially if you’re driving to a well known restaurant in an expensive car otherwise you might as well put a flashing sign on your head to alert potential thieves.

•Don’t complain to the chef about your food otherwise you might end up in hospital.

•Don’t get involved with any island documentaries that promise to show the ‘real Ibiza’, they will end up focussing almost entirely on drugs (ad nauseam).

•Waving your phone in the air whilst filming the next ‘big’ DJ (insert name here) will become compulsory in some venues in 2025 whilst others may have the foresight to ban them totally.

Summer 2024 – that’s all folks!

Listen to my Man In San An PODCAST on Apple or Spotify. ‘My Ibiza Journey’ with Island people talking about their Ibiza experiences plus the new ‘Talking Balearics’ with Richie Prior, a weekly current affairs programme covering the latest news from the Balearic archipelago.

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Around 1200 people came together in late September under the banner of ‘Canviem el Rumb’ or ‘Let’s change Course’ to give it an English translation. 

In a change to the more radical protests and anti tourist sentiment the platform came together to call for limits on Ibiza’s current tourism model and action against the social and ecological crisis that has accelerated in recent years. 

The protest group point to problems such as beach overcrowding, potential droughts and criticising local government for continuing to allow unrestricted watering of tropical gardens in luxury houses, the building of luxury villas with swimming pools and using water reserves on tourist facilities. They also attacked the simultaneous arrival of cruise ships, mega yachts and private jets.

Their manifesto also focussed on the Ibiza housing crisis pointing at workers living in tents and those who have had to leave the island due to difficulties of finding reasonably priced housing. “For many years we have been told that tourism generated wealth, prosperity and progress. But after so many seasons of record tourist arrivals, where is that wealth?” they ask. 

The platform considers that it still possible to “get the situation back on track” making a series of requests such as limiting the arrival of aeroplanes at Ibiza’s airport, prohibiting or setting limits on private jets, cruise ships and mega yachts. 

They also demanded limits on rental vehicles and improving public transport. Among their proposals is the more polarising request to restrict the purchase of houses by non-residents plus a call to end the privatisation and commercialisation of beaches, regulating rental prices and ensuring that infrastructure such as roads “are paid for by tourism” as well as putting an end to the tourist promotion of Ibiza and Formentera using public money.

“The decrease in tourism is a demand that we make to the administrations, but it is also a brave commitment that we must make together,” they stated in the manifesto. “This current model is beginning to collapse,” they concluded.

The pressure is now on Balearic law makers to try to navigate their way through rocky waters where there is a continuing discontent to the White Isles direction of travel and where disparities are only getting wider.

As the summer season draws to a close and the island becomes quieter it’s a good time to reflect on the way forward but what is clear is that these types of protests will only become more frequent if new legislation isn’t brought in or the perception of tourists first and residents second isn’t addressed at some level.