SOURCE A
IBESTAT / EGATUR
IBIZA & FORMENTERATourist expenditure by category, Jan–Sep 2019
Package holiday 23.58%; accommodation 18.97%; food & drink 17.74%; activities 16.55%; origin/destination transport 16.69%; other 6.47%.
OPEN SOURCE
2019
THE IBIZA
WALLET.
Ibiza doesn't appear to have a spending problem.
It may have a spending distribution problem.
Observation 0001 asked where the tourist euro was going. Observation 0002 follows the evidence into the wallet — and finds that aggregate spending alone cannot tell us who captures the value.
01 / THE SIGNAL
The money is still coming.
Tourist expenditure reached €2.585bn through July 2026, 7.5% above the same period in 2025.
The aggregate visitor wallet is growing. July alone reached €1.059bn, while average spend per tourist reached €1,489. The question begins after the money enters the system.
02 / THE WALLET
Tourist expenditure is not one number. It is a distribution.
IBESTAT / EGATUR shows a material change in the composition of tourist expenditure. The periods below are not identical — 2019 is January–September and 2024 is full-year — so this is a structural signal, not a strict like-for-like time series.
CATEGORY2019*2024
PACKAGE HOLIDAY23.58%13.02%
ACCOMMODATION18.97%23.66%
FOOD & DRINK17.74%19.65%
ACTIVITIES16.55%16.79%
TRANSPORT16.69%16.90%
OTHER6.47%9.98%
*2019 Jan–Sep. 2024 full year. Sources A–B.
03 / WHAT CHANGED
Accommodation gained weight. Package holidays lost it. Food did not collapse.
ACCOMMODATION
18.97% → 23.66%. A materially larger share of the wallet.
PACKAGE HOLIDAY
23.58% → 13.02%. A major change in how the trip is purchased.
FOOD & DRINK
17.74% → 19.65%. The macro data does not support a claim that food's share collapsed.
04 / THE CONTRADICTION
Then why are parts of the local economy reporting pressure?
PIMEEF Restauració has repeatedly reported irregular revenues, lower profitability and changing visitor behaviour. Those reports are sector evidence — not island-wide expenditure statistics.
The macro data and the business experience can both be true.
A broad category such as “food & drink” does not tell us how spend is divided between hotels, independent restaurants, beach restaurants, fast food, supermarkets or prepared food. The total can hold while the businesses capturing it change.
05 / LOCAL CAPTURE
Spending is not the same as capture.
Two visitors can spend the same €2,000 and create two radically different local economic footprints.
Tourist expenditure tells us how much money enters the visitor economy. Local Capture asks where that money lands — and how widely it circulates through the destination.
06 / THE DATA GAP
Ibiza knows the macro number better than the path underneath it.
Official statistics track arrivals, overnight stays, average stay, occupancy and expenditure, including broad spending categories. Visibility becomes weaker below those categories.
FOOD → hotel restaurant / independent restaurant / beach restaurant / fast food / supermarket?
ACTIVITIES → clubs / beach clubs / boats / wellness / culture / other experiences?
LOCAL CAPTURE → how much value circulates through the wider island economy?
07 / THE 72-HOUR SIGNAL
A short-stay segment is a signal. It is not the average tourist.
Industry reporting points to increasing relevance of one-to-three-day visitors. But the official data does not justify describing Ibiza as a three-day destination overall. The distinction matters.
The Observatory therefore treats the 72-hour visitor as a behaviour to watch, not as a description of Ibiza's average stay.
08 / WHAT WE KNOW
What the evidence supports — and what it doesn't.
OBSERVED
Aggregate tourist expenditure is growing and the composition of the wallet has changed.
EMERGING
Some sectors report pressure despite that growth, suggesting uneven capture deserves measurement.
UNKNOWN
We cannot yet quantify exactly how concentrated tourist expenditure has become or how widely it circulates.
THE IBIZA METHOD™ OBSERVATION
Revenue tells you how much value entered a system.
Distribution tells you what that value actually changed.
09 / THE QUESTION
Where does the Ibiza euro actually land?
And how much of it circulates before it leaves?
The next layer of the Observatory is not another arrival count. It is an attempt to understand capture.
10 / SOURCES
Every claim has a trail.
SOURCE B
IBESTAT / EGATUR
IBIZA & FORMENTERATourist expenditure by category, full year 2024
Package holiday 13.02%; accommodation 23.66%; food & drink 19.65%; activities 16.79%; origin/destination transport 16.90%; other 9.98%.
OPEN SOURCE
2024
SOURCE C
IBESTAT / CADENA SER
PITIÜSESTourist expenditure, July 2026
€1.059bn in July (+6.4%); €1,489 average spend per tourist; €271 per tourist/day; €2.585bn January–July (+7.5%).
OPEN SOURCE
01 SEP 2026
SOURCE D
IBESTAT / CADENA SER
PITIÜSESHotel pricing, July 2026
Average hotel ADR reached €282 (+13.9%); five-star ADR €585 (+17.7%).
OPEN SOURCE
25 AUG 2026
SOURCE E
PIMEEF
IBIZARestaurant sector reporting
Sector reporting describes an irregular season, pressure on profitability, changing visitor behaviour and increasing competition for the visitor budget.
OPEN SOURCE
2026
SOURCE F
PIMEEF
IBIZARestaurant season balance
The sector expects sales around or slightly below 2025 with lower profitability, while reporting changes in visitor profile including premium and short-stay segments.
OPEN SOURCE
SEP 2026
SOURCE G
IBESTAT
IBIZA & FORMENTERATourism statistical catalogue
Official datasets include expenditure by category, accommodation, residence, overnight stays and average stay.
OPEN SOURCE
CURRENT DATASET