2017 Statistics
The FITUR year end statistics have been published by the Balearic Statistics Institute, IBESTAT.
The FITUR figures are the ones that count, the official record of tourist flow through Ibiza and Formentera.
Compiled by key European markets, and a catch all rest-of-the-world category, we have detailed the results with notes on trends and results.
Volume
A total of 3,236,360 tourists graced the Pitiuses with their presence in 2017, 5.7% more than in 2016.
The British continue to lead Ibiza’s Tourism business. 871,288 British visitors in 2017 equalled the total number of German, French and Italian visitors combined.
871,000 Brits is 40,000 up on 2016, but a long way short of the 1 million target set by Consell President Vicent Torres at the close of the FITUR tourism fair held at the start of 2016. Given the vocal opposition that developed during the season to what some consider the saturation point of tourism in Ibiza and elsewhere in Spain, the President may be thanking his electoral stars that his projection did not come to pass.
After the UK came Spain with 685k and Italy with 431k. Perhaps the biggest suprise in pure numbers is that Holland and Belgium leapfrogged the German market into 4th place with a narrow margin of 335k compared to a Deutschland drop to 315k.
Ibiza Tourism (FITUR) by Nationality - 2016 (Blue) and 2017 (Red)
Change
An unmistakable slow down was the order of 2017, and perhaps that was inevitable with numbers at a point the locals were asking the tourists to go home.
It seems that both the Germans and French took the advice literally, showing a decline of 6% and 12% respectively – remarkable not so much for the consequence on numbers, but in it being the first year end any of the reported categories have reported a reduction in numbers – as far back as we can remember.
The only group showing a year on year increase in the % change were the Spanish – ironic in that they already were home, though the protesters didn’t seem to notice that in their mainly English worded graffiti protests.
Though tiny in number, the Scandinavian market continued a healthy increase at 11%, followed by the Italians at 8.4%, but that is where the loving stopped as far as we can identify – though it was those we cannot put a flag to, the rest of the world, that seem to be falling under Ibiza’s charms with a whopping 26.6% year on year increase – more than double that of the next grouping.
Ibiza Tourism Year on Year % Change by Nationality - 2016 (Blue) and 2017 (Red)
Data Table
The full breakdown of tourists by nationality grouping is given below, for 2016 and 2017.
| Ibiza Tourism | 2017 | 2016 | ||
| (FITUR) | People | % Change | People | % Change |
| Total | 3,236,360 | 5.7 | 3,061,895 | 13.6 |
| U.K. | 871,288 | 4.7 | 832,072 | 7.8 |
| Spain | 685,524 | 5.0 | 652,715 | 3.4 |
| Italy | 431,626 | 8.4 | 398,148 | 12.1 |
| Germany | 315,845 | -6.1 | 336,400 | 1.8 |
| France | 138,915 | -12.1 | 158,117 | 40.3 |
| Scandinavia | 25,939 | 11.0 | 23,372 | 68.4 |
| Hol, Bel, Lux | 334,908 | 4.8 | 319,478 | 40.8 |
| Rest of World | 432,315 | 26.6 | 341,593 | 34.6 |
