Spain’s Ibiza limits tourist cars, caravans due to overcrowding

MADRID – Spain’s island of Ibiza – a hugely popular Mediterranean destination – from June 1 started limiting the number of incoming tourist cars and caravans because of the huge number of visitors it gets.

From June 1 to Sept 30, the daily number of vehicles used by non-residents is 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 prior authorisation to do so.

Caravans 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, Mr 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 a 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.

Mr Mari said various interests operating in Ibiza, including car rental firms and big companies, resisted the limits, but he argued that these were necessary to regulate and control unsustainable tourist flows.

Formentera island already restricts vehicle numbers, and another Balearic Islands hot spot, Mallorca, is planning to do so in 2026.

Altogether, the Balearic Islands attract 19 million tourists a year, a sizeable part of the 94 million who visit all of Spain, which is the second-biggest destination for visitors globally after France. AFP