Historia del turismo en Ibiza: Aplicación del Ciclo de Vida del Destino Turístico en un destino maduro del Mediterráneo

Ibiza is a Mediterranean island whose economic development is highly dependent on sun and beach tourism. Tourism in Ibiza began its development in the first third of the 20th century but experienced its highest growth rates along the sixties and seventies. Nowadays, Ibiza is a mature tourism destination with a strong brand image. The aim of this paper is to analyze the evolution of tourism in Ibiza, taking the Tourism Destination Life Cycle model as a basis. Ibiza seems to follow the model described by Butler (1980) with high accuracy and only some external negative impacts (wars, crises, etc.) seem to cause a certain delay in the different life cycle phases. To improve the Life Cycle model is proposed to introduce a Pretourist Phase, measure the demand in overnight stays and define the region studied as the marketed product.