The president of the Eivissa Island Council, Vicent Marí, together with the head of the recently created Eivissa Tourism Intelligence System (SIT Eivissa), Juan Simón Tur, has presented a preview of the data obtained by this observatory, which represents a first analysis of the behaviour of the season on our island. As the president explained, these are data that already allow us to obtain a vision of the dynamics of our visitors and to make an initial assessment of the season ‘in general good, because Eivissa continues to be a highly valued and prized destination, but irregular and atypical in economic terms’.
Since it was set up, this office has worked on obtaining data from public sources such as AENA, INE and IBESTAT, to which new private sources have been added (agreed with town councils, employers’ associations and associations), such as Mabrian, a member company of the UN World Tourism Organisation since 2023; Amadeus, with its travel booking system, are leaders in the tourism distribution sector; Orange, collecting mobility data from residents and visitors through its antennas; and Smart Up, specialists in digital marketing, are digital listeners and work with them on the variable of tourist sentiment.
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The first data from the Eivissa Tourism Intelligence System show a good season but with signs of being irregular and atypical
These new sources of information make it possible to obtain data which, in this first advance, can help to make an x-ray of the situation of the tourism industry on the island with parameters such as visitor spending, ticket prices, hotel prices and visitor motivations. Marí stated that this is a time ‘when we are facing many challenges, both social and economic, and we must know what is happening to be able to orientate our strategies, to obtain an analytical advantage that will allow us to redirect, if necessary, or strengthen our tourism policies to achieve what we all want: a balance between the main industry of our island and society’.
As for the specific data (all of which can be consulted in the PDF attached to this press release), those referring to spending by international travellers through Mastercard (data from the second quarter of the year) show that the majority of spending by foreigners on our island is concentrated in restaurants (28%), accommodation (25%) and nightclubs (15%). Thus, nearly 70% of tourist spending goes to these three aspects, with shops accounting for a much lower percentage of spending.
If we look at the cost of staying in hotels on the island this year, all categories, from 1 to 5 stars, have increased their prices compared to last year in the main months of the season, although prices fell in August in 3, 4 and 5-star hotels.
Compared to our direct competitors, Mallorca and Menorca, the prices of hotels and airline tickets are more expensive: both a night in a hotel and flying to Ibiza, both for national and foreign visitors, mean more expenditure (see tables attached to the PDF).
And yet, Eivissa continues to be a highly valued and sought-after destination for travellers (with the highest traveller satisfaction ratings, 9 out of 10), as shown by the accumulated data from AENA in which, up to August, the number of unique passengers rose by 1.80% compared to the previous year.
To travel to Ibiza and reach these prices, the dynamics of the traveller have changed: according to data from Amadeus and IBESTAT, the average stay on the island for national travellers has decreased by 1.7 days in recent years, reaching an average of 2.61 days, while the average stay of foreign visitors has decreased by 1 day, reaching an average stay of 3.37 days.
Thus, fewer days of visit mean that visitors are concentrating their spending on, as mentioned above, three specific aspects: hotels, restaurants and leisure, which have repercussions on spending in other areas such as small shops. In addition, the high prices detected mean that family tourism is opting for other, cheaper destinations.