Spent 4 days in Ibiza this summer, and I expected it to be way more packed than it was. We booked a Vespa instead of a car, mainly to avoid traffic. We were moving around a lot and I thought the roads in July would be full, but there was barely any traffic at all. But earlier this week I had a call with a realtor based there who told me that the island is being capped on purpose. Rental companies applied for 24,112 vehicles this summer but received only 14,000. Two years ago there was no limit at all. Campervans now need a campsite booking against about 200 pitches on the whole island, so arrivals went from 3,305 in 2024 to roughly 800 this summer. Hotel beds are capped too. Ibiza hasn't added a single net new tourist bed since 2017, still at ~77,700. So instead of adding beds they upgraded the ones they had: 4 and 5 star up 69%, 1 to 3 star down 23%. In 2017 a third of hotel beds were 4 or 5 star, by 2024 it was more than half. But arrivals increased, with 2025 setting a record. The difference, however, is that people stay shorter than they used to, down from 5.83 nights to 5.40. So instead of reducing the number of people that visit (which would've hurt the economy), they changed how people holiday there instead. Fewer cars, shorter stays, better beds, and more money per head (daily spend went from €167 in 2019 to €222.80 in 2024 and likely higher since). Very smart! The other thing I keep noticing is how many people now talk about Ibiza as a place to actually live in (with kids too) rather than somewhere to go for a few nights out. Anyone else noticed this in Ibiza, or anywhere else in Spain?