British visitors to Ibiza make up around one third of the island's annual visitors and, as a vital part of the market, statistics about them are highly important.
The devaluation of Sterling against the Euro has seen spending by the British in bars, restaurants, shops and so on decrease by 20% in 2008 and many Ibiza businesses are feeling the pinch.
The number of British visitors also declined slightly on
last year BUT 2008 has been another RECORD year, already surpassing the total for 2007 with Spanish visitors increasing yet again.
Predictions by the British package tour operators about reservations for 2009 are quite gloomy BUT it must be remembered that the popularity of package tours grows less every year as tourists become
more Internet savvy. These days more than half of Ibiza's British visitors reserve their flights and accommodation courtesy of the net.