Summer 2018: The Ibiza Review

As the season progressed and the temperature started to rise, nobody could really tell if the island was as busy as usual or if it wasn’t, if we had reached the peak or if the “best” was yet to come. One day it seemed it was all back to normal, the following day it wasn´t. We are now at the end of September and our verdict is that the 2018 season has definitively seen a decrease in the number of people out and about around the whole island. This has been felt in restaurants, shops, beach clubs, clubs and even on the roads (every cloud has a silver lining)! Another interesting factor to be considered is that whilst some places seem to have been able to hold on to their usual clientele, other places have seen numbers decrease in a worrying manner to the extent of endangering their viability. The last few years have seen Ibiza rapidly mutating from a chilled island, where people of all walks of life came to relax, party and be nurtured by its carefree and pure essence, to a world renowned VIP hotspot where not everybody feels welcome anymore.

Elevating the standard of those visiting our shores has always been a genuine and legitimate aspiration of local businesses and politicians, but have we perhaps taken it a step too far? Luxury is only luxury when it involves a degree of differentiation from the norm, a symbol of quality and status. When luxury consists mainly in painting everything white, placing dividing ropes and hiking prices to extortionate levels, the word luxury loses its meaning. On many occasions, our wealthiest clients prefer quality but in understated places with a local flavour, not for their price (believe us, sometimes they can be just as pricey) but for their character, the quality of their produce and the fact that they remind them of the spirit of a small Mediterranean island, the true spirit of Ibiza. Of course, everybody is up for a glitzy night every now and then, but in our opinion the true winners of the 2018 season have been those places offering a more authentic experience.

It is also worth mentioning an improvement in the level of service generally offered by many establishments this season. Ibiza has the well-deserved reputation of having rather slow, unpolished and sometimes unfriendly service which seldom matches the price tag. However, this year the general feeling has been that the level of service has noticeably improved. Whether this is because businesses had less customers to attend or because they are learning from their previous mistakes we don’t know, but things are finally starting to look up when it comes to “service with a smile”. In respect of the dance club culture we are of the opinion that 2018 has seen the consolidation of the decline that started a couple of years ago. Whilst two or three clubs have done quite well, other places have struggled to fill their dancefloors but for a couple of nights a week. We suspect that there are many contributing factors, but the ridiculous price of everything in Ibiza is surely not helping to bring hordes of 20 somethings willing to dance the night away whilst paying €20 for a shot of vodka and a bit of sprite.

Clubs should start aiming to attract back their young and not particularly wealthy clientele, at the end of the day people in their 30s, 40s and 50s are unlikely to want to buy a VIP table in a club with a semi-empty dancefloor and little atmosphere. To finalise this review, we believe that 2018 will mark the beginning of some moderately drastic changes in the Ibiza model which became unsustainable during the 2015 and 2016 seasons. We should not see these changes as a threat but as an opportunity to do things better. A substantial percentage of our clients have told us that they have enjoyed the island better this summer, so perhaps in the case of Ibiza less could be more! In our next blog we will discuss what we think Ibiza needs more of. In the meantime we would like to thank you and hope you will let us continue taking care of you. Enjoy the last days of the summer and all the fabulous closing parties!

If you want to enjoy your family holiday, contact Dynamic Lives today and book a luxury villa in Ibiza right now.

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