Spain's Ibiza limits tourist cars and caravans

PARIS: Spain's island of Ibiza — a hugely popular Mediterranean destination — from Sunday started limiting the number of incoming tourist cars and caravans because of the huge numbers of visitors it gets.

From June 1 to Sept 30, the daily number of vehicles used by non-residents is now capped at 20,000, the local government explained to one of the island's newspapers, El Periodico de Ibiza y Formentera.

Of those, 16,000 are rental cars available on the island, while the rest of the quota is for private cars making ferry crossings, as long as they get a prior authorisation to do so.

Caravans also need to show they have a reservation at a camping site, and are not allowed to be parked anywhere in the countryside.

Motorbikes are excluded from the seasonal restrictions.

The head of Ibiza's government, Vicent Mari, told the newspaper that the change was to "guarantee the sustainability" of the island, which has 150,000 inhabitants but receives some 3.6 million tourists per year, along with the smaller Formentera island nearby.

Official statistics show that the number of vehicles on the island's roads quadrupled over the past two decades, from 51,000 in 2002 to 207,000 in 2022.

Mari said various interests operating in Ibiza — including car-rental firms and big companies — had resisted the limits, but argued that were necessary "to regulate and control unsustainable (tourist) flows".

Formentera island already restricts vehicles, and another Balearic islands hotspot, Mallorca, is planning to do so next year.

Altogether, the Balearic islands attract 19 million tourists per year, a sizable part of the 94 million who visit all of Spain, which is the second-biggest destination for visitors in the world, after France.