Tangible and Intangible Heritage of Ibiza (Spain) and Its Potential to Be Valued as a Tourist Offer

Abstract

Ibiza is internationally known for its beaches and coves, but especially for its nightlife. In addition, at the beginning of the 21st century, there was an increase in luxury tourism. However, other types of tourism have a testimonial or null presence, although the administrations make efforts to promote them. This article describes the main assets that make up the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Ibiza, its singularities, and the successes and errors in its management, using the case study methodology. The island’s heritage is made up of monuments, some of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and others of great originality and archaism, rural settings, and elements of the local culture. Specifically, the cultural heritage of Ibiza can be divided into the following four assets: the old city of Ibiza; the rural architecture; the cultural landscapes; and the traditional folklore. The restoration of some assets such as the walls or the rural churches are successes in management, and the administrative obstacles to the owners of the preserved assets are considered errors. In conclusion, it should be noted that cultural heritage is not sufficiently well preserved and is a tourist offer that has not been adequately promoted.

1. Introduction

Ibiza is an island in the western Mediterranean with a surface area of 571.76 km² and more than 150,000 inhabitants, with a strong economic dependence on tourism [1]. It receives more than three million tourists who arrive mostly on regular low-cost flights for short stays of three or four days during the summer months [2]. The tourism it receives is mainly attracted by its offer of sun and beach, completed with nightlife establishments whose prestige is recognized worldwide. In recent years, the innovations of various establishments have made it possible to develop a very attractive offer for tourists with high purchasing power [3].

In its beginnings, Ibiza was an island with a subsistence economy based on the primary sector, but at the end of the 19th century small exports of agricultural, livestock and forestry products began [4]. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first initiatives aimed at promoting future tourist activity took place. In those early years, tourism based on cultural, natural and archaeological heritage was promoted [5]. However, the beginnings of tourism can be considered to be located in the first third of the 20th century, specifically in the years prior to the Spanish Civil War [4].

After the parenthesis of the Spanish Civil War and the postwar period, tourism recovered throughout the fifties. In those years, tourism was attracted by the beaches and the weather, with heritage being an almost forgotten element in its promotion. After the opening of the airport in 1958, arrivals increased significantly and, by the end of the sixties, the annual growth in supply and demand was the highest in the 20th century [5]. In the last decades of the 20th century, criticism of the negative impacts generated by tourism led to the approval of regional regulations that sought to protect the natural environment and modernize the existing offer. Finally, during the first years of the 21st century, luxury tourism had a great media presence, but cultural tourism was still residual.

The reduction in tourist seasonality is one of the objectives pursued by authorities and the tourism sector, with alternative offers to sun and beach tourism providing the foundations for this objective [6]. However, so far, no perceptible effects have been achieved and the island’s super-clubs continue to determine the tourist season [3]. One of the alternative offers is cultural tourism, based on the old city [7,8,9], rural churches, folklore and traditional culture [10], but the complexity of simultaneously managing heritage protection and tourism development [11,12] has prevented moving beyond intentions and residual data.

In the international context, with the increase in tourist trips during the 20th century, the most developed tourism was sun and beach tourism, being the offer that characterizes many of the most important destinations with international prestige, as occurs in the Western Mediterranean [13]. However, cultural tourism is at the origin of tourism, as the example of the Grand Tour illustrates [14]. Cultural tourism is the priority line of development for regions without great potential for offering sun and beach tourism, mainly cities and inland regions. Within cultural tourism, researchers have studied the following: cities with an important monumental heritage (e.g., [15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27]), from various aspects such as tourist spending [16,17,24,25,26], travel motivations [18,27], urban space from different approaches [19,20,24]; various aspects of World Heritage Sites (e.g., [23,25,27,28,29,30]), which are closely linked to urban cultural tourism (e.g., [23,25,27]) and complex to obtain and maintain [9]; religious events and celebrations because religious tourism has undergone an important development linked to the new spirituality developed in the West in recent decades and to the conservation or recovery of traditions, as is the case of the Camino de Santiago [31] and Holy Week [32] in Spain; gastronomy as a tourist attraction (e.g., [33,34,35,36,37]) has always been taken into consideration, but in recent years the spread of traditional cuisine has been promoted as a way to create value for an intangible heritage linked to cities or rural areas; products protected by denominations of origin such as wine (e.g., [38,39,40,41,42,43,44]) and oil (e.g., [45]), taking advantage of the tools created by governments around the world to protect and provide a collective brand to traditional products with differential characteristics. In addition to this, other aspects related to cultural tourism and its management have been studied (e.g., [16,17,24,25,26,27,30,46,47,48]), such as guided tours [46], forms of access to monumental heritage [47] or the attitudes of residents [48]. Less weight has been given to the study of intangible heritage as a tourist resource (e.g., [48,49,50,51,52,53,54]), such as bullfights [48] and flamenco [50]. Every day, the analysis of intangible heritage becomes more important as it is the next step for heritage in tourism promotion, once the material heritage of the most developed countries has been consolidated as a tourist attraction.

In Ibiza, studies about tourism are scarcer than would be desirable and, in the case of cultural tourism, the first descriptive analyses are only just emerging (e.g., [7,8,9,10]). Possibly, the enormous importance of sun and beach tourism has overshadowed the development of initiatives and studies in other types of offers [6]. The aim of this paper was to advance the study of cultural tourism in Ibiza, enumerating and analyzing the situation of the island’s cultural assets with tourist potential [10]. Specifically, this paper described the most representative and differentiating assets of the cultural heritage of Ibiza to subsequently carry out a critical analysis in relation to the conservation actions carried out, the promotion of these assets and the heritage weight in the tourism. The main conclusions are the irregular conservation of these assets and the lack of promotion and planning of the cultural tourism offer, currently being only a complementary element to the traditional sun and beach tourism of the island.

2. Evolution of Tourism and Promotion in Ibiza

Although the encyclopedic work Die Balearen by Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria described and made known the Balearic Islands in great detail in the second half of the 19th century, the first publication intended for tourism promotion in Ibiza was the guide Ibiza, Guía del Turista by Arturo Pérez-Cabrero, published in Barcelona in 1909 [5]. This book provides the first documented evidence of a local interest in the development of tourism or “industry of the foreigners”. It should be noted that the tourism promotion of the island during the first half of the 20th century was based on the local culture, the architectural and archaeological heritage and the mild climate, proposing the island as a winter destination for residents of Central Europe [55]. This approach is also due to the specialization of the pioneering authors, mostly linked to ethnographic, historical and archaeological studies of the island.

After the end of the First World War, some tourists journeyed to the island. They were very few in number, but enough for suggestions of improvements to appear in the local press, including the creation of hotels, more shipping lines, road improvements, street cleaning, port expansion, and tourism promotion activities [4,5]. These claims were made by a small group of businessmen who since the beginning of the century had defended the new sector, although it was a defense launched almost alone [55].

In the thirties, the tourism enthusiasts organized themselves into the Ibiza Local Tourism Board (later the Ibiza Tourism Promotion), created in likeness to that of Mallorca. Its appearance was due to the importance that tourism was beginning to assume as an economic activity, bringing constant growth in tourist arrivals, opening of hotels, etc. They were still modest data but the evolution was clearly positive [55]. The Ibiza Tourism Promotion Board made it possible to organize and coordinate the actions of the promoters of tourism on the island during the following decades, although it should be noted that it was a small group with very modest resources [4,5].

The positive trend in the sector during the thirties was quickly cut short by the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the precariousness of the post-war years. In the forties, promotional actions were purely anecdotal, due to the lack of resources and the difficulties in attracting visitors, given the situation in Europe [55]. In 1947, the activity of Ibiza Tourism Promotion was reestablished, becoming more professional in the organization of the different promotional activities in the following years [5]. At that time, the promotion of the island was still focused on costumbrist elements and cultural heritage.

In the fifties, the authorities and businessmen of Ibiza saw the need to differentiate themselves from Mallorca in order to avoid excessively direct competition. To do this, they took advantage of the presence of artists and intellectuals from the European avant-garde on the island [56]. In addition, in the fifties, people linked to the countercultures of that time, such as the beatniks, made an appearance in Ibiza, and in the sixties the hippies followed [56,57,58]. This fact was not exclusive to Ibiza, but those responsible for the tourism sector decided to exploit the charm of Ibiza among artists and beatniks for promotion [59]. Since then, freedom and tolerance became hallmarks of the island, differentiating it from other Mediterranean destinations, and culture and heritage were relegated until the end of the 20th century [3].

In the fifties and sixties, the population’s involvement in tourism increased significantly. The bad years of the postwar period and the mass tourism that helped in the development of the welfare state in Europe motivated this implication [60]. The community of foreigners linked to the avant-garde that was formed over the years facilitated the generation of significant local-artistic production that was used by the Spanish Government [55]. Thus, since 1965, there has been government involvement in the promotion of avant-garde art in Ibiza, exampled by the establishment of the International University Art Biennials from 1964 and the creation of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1968 [56,57,61]. The reason was to take advantage of Ibiza’s link with the artistic avant-gardes for its tourist promotion [62].

However, the main driver of the promotion of Ibiza was the media coverage of the hippie community that formed in the late sixties [63]. By adopting the counterculture and anti-system movements as a differentiating element in tourism promotion [5], the paradox of hippies being located outside of local society to being a very characteristic part of island society and folklore emerged [63].

The political transition and the oil crisis led, in the second half of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties, to a decline in public promotional initiatives, but the sector was little affected thanks to the inertia of the growth that began in the sixties and the international recognition that Ibiza was experiencing [55]. In the eighties, the great nightclubs of that time generated a high media impact, highlighting Pacha, Amnesia and, especially, Ku [64]. Later, the importance of these nightclubs was taken advantage of by the Balearic Government’s Ministry of Tourism in the tourism promotion of the island [5].

The economic crisis of the late eighties and early nineties had a notorious impact on both tourism supply and demand, forcing administrations and companies to take various actions. On the one hand, it was necessary to modernize the offer, limit the number of places, improve the services provided and carry out actions to protect the environment [55]. On the other hand, it was necessary to be more proactive in promoting tourism. Until then, the distribution channel and destination promotion in the issuing markets had remained in the hands of the European tour operators, with few actions being undertaken by the destination itself. In the nineties, it was seen that it was essential to take greater control of the distribution channel and promotion in the issuing countries [5]. The tourist promotion of the island continued to focus on sun and beach tourism, completed by nightlife.

The new the century brought changes in business and public administration. Many entrepreneurs modernized and improved their establishments, innovating in the service in some cases [55]. Traditionally, the offer on the island was cheap and was dominated by three-star establishments, with the offer of four and five stars being very scarce (between 2.5% and 5%). Thanks to these reforms, at the end of the second decade of the 21st century, four- and five-star establishments reached 25% of Ibiza’s offer [1]. Some of these reforms involved the creation of establishments, such as the Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel, which generated a significant media impact and helped mitigate the effects of the 2008 economic crisis [65]. These reforms made it possible to attract celebrities and conveyed an image of glamor and promoted the island as a fashion destination.

Over the last decade, Ibiza’s image has developed into a combination of freedom and alternative life generated by the hippie movement of the sixties and seventies with a sense of glamour, sophistication and luxury created by the offer reforms and arrival of the rich and famous in the first decades of the 21st century [3]. Although the image has evolved in recent years, it remains focused on beaches and nightclubs [66,67]. For this reason, for some years now, the Ibiza Island Council and the Balearic Government have been working on promoting New Strategic Tourism Segments, which have a good rating among residents [6], but have been little promoted despite their potential. The Strategic Tourism Segments are specified in the following seven products: sports, gastronomy, culture, ecotourism, active tourism, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) and luxury [68]. It is a necessary and interesting strategy but work is required to incorporate these element into the perception of Ibiza in the issuing markets. Within the Strategic Tourism Segments taken into consideration, there is cultural tourism, on which the analysis in this paper focused.

3. Methodology

The methodology applied is based on the case study analysis [69]; specifically, the heritage assets of the Ibiza Island with the potential to constitute tourist attractions have been analyzed. The most outstanding assets of the tangible and intangible heritage of the island were determined based on the experience and fieldwork of the authors, the review of the local bibliography, the comments of residents and tourists, and the promotional material of the island. Based on the available bibliography on the history and local culture of Ibiza, it can be stated that, traditionally, the island is divided between the city, with an urban society influenced by the outside, and the countryside, characterized by a scattered habitat and a life based on subsistence agriculture and livestock, in addition to conserving a greater number of archaic elements. In turn, the elements of the countryside can be divided into its scattered buildings and the landscape. The countryside of the island is the result of centuries of human activity that has transformed it, turning it into a cultural landscape. The rural buildings are, mainly, churches, single-family houses, defensive towers of various types, and other minor elements differing in importance and size. With regard to intangible heritage, many elements were lost in the city centuries ago, being replaced by external cultural elements, and the main redoubt of this heritage is the native population living in the countryside. Accordingly, the heritage with the greatest tourism potential can be grouped into the following four groups of assets [10]:

• The old city of Ibiza, known locally as Dalt Vila, and characterized by the Renaissance walls that surround the oldest neighborhoods, and the cathedral and the castle in its highest part [9];
• The rural architecture is made up of single-family rural houses, rural churches and defense towers against pirate attacks (both coastal and farm), being an architecture very different from that existing in most European regions;
• The cultural landscapes, generated by the interaction of human activity with the natural environment for centuries, such as Es Amunts in the north, Ses Feixes next to the Ibiza city and Ses Salines in the south;
• The traditional culture, whose most visual and well-known elements are the folk dance of ancient rural traditions and traditional clothing, currently used in folk dance exhibitions, such as traditional gold or silver and coral jewelry.

Of this heritage, the old city and the cultural landscapes of Ses Feixes and Ses Salines, together with other natural assets, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites [9]. On the other hand, the houses, churches and rural towers, together with the dance, clothing and jewelry, in addition to the landscape of Ses Feixes, are highly original and have possible historical roots dating back to the first civilizations of the Mediterranean.

Various tools have been used to describe and analyze the island’s cultural heritage. First, the existing literature on these island heritage assets was reviewed in order to determine the component characteristics of the potential cultural tourism offer, classifying it into four groups of assets, as it indicated above. Based on this, it was possible to determine its characteristics and some indications of its historical origin. Subsequently, fieldwork was carried out consisting of visiting the various assets analyzed (e.g., several churches, the old city and the cultural landscapes mentioned) and local museums, reviewing the local press and consulting with local researchers and other people involved in the management of this heritage. For the benefit of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, there is abundant documentation but also confusion that necessitates the provision of detailed maps, as required by UNESCO [9]. In the case of the churches, they were personally visited and photographic and historical material was reviewed to determine which were of historical and tourist interest (information from the Diocese of Ibiza and Formentera was taken as starting material). For the rural houses, municipal inventories were consulted, but it should be noted that they can be improved, especially in the municipality of Sant Antoni. For the towers, the existing bibliography on coastal towers was consulted and several were visited. In the case of farm towers, less information is available. For the local culture, the bibliography on local ethnography and traditional clothing was consulted, but it was contrasted with the old population and local researchers. Officials from the Ibiza Island Council and some town halls were also consulted. It should be noted that the main author is an island resident, who was involved in reviewing the local literature, visiting the various assets and consulting with local administrations, local researchers and people linked to the various assets for more than twenty years. By conducting the listed activities, a first approximation was made to evaluate the main assets of the cultural heritage of Ibiza and its situation in terms of conservation, enhancement and tourism potential.

4. Assets of the Cultural Heritage of Ibiza

The cultural heritage of Ibiza does not stand out for the existence of great monuments, except the Renaissance walls, but it does stand out for the originality of some of its assets. The landscape, the churches and the houses located in the rural area are assets of great originality, being different from those existing in other nearby regions and only similar to assets of some places in the Mediterranean that, like Ibiza, have remained isolated from the great cultural currents for centuries. The heritage of the island is made up of architecture, landscape and local culture. Specifically, the cultural heritage of Ibiza can be divided into the following four groups [10]: the old city of Ibiza; the rural architecture; the cultural landscapes; and the traditional culture. These four groups of heritage assets are explored in the following subsections.

4.1. The Old City of Ibiza

The original urban nucleus was constituted in what is called Puig de Vila, with the necropolis being located in Puig des Molins. The foundation of the Phoenician colony, according to classical historiography, dates back to the middle of the 7th century BC, specifically in 654 BC, and the settlement was first archaeologically documented at the beginning of the 6th century BC [70]. Throughout the Punic era it was a fundamental point in the commercial routes of Carthage. In the 10th century, specifically from 902, Madina Yabisah was part of the territories of Al-Andalus and it was a period for which there is abundant documentary, archaeological and urban records. The division into three enclosures of the medieval wall originates from this period [9].

In 1235, Ibiza was conquered by the Crown of Aragon. During the 16th century, there were frequent Turkish attacks that could not be repelled by the old medieval walls. This threat, common throughout the Mediterranean perimeter of the Spanish empire, led to the construction of the Renaissance walls [71]. The Renaissance walls were part of a plan to modernize the Mediterranean coastal defenses of the Spanish empire [72]. Giovanni Battista Calvi da Caravaggio designed the first layout of the Renaissance wall in 1554 following the layout of the medieval walls [70,73], but Giovan Giacomo Paleazzo reformed and expanded the project in 1575 [70,74], leaving the layout of the walled enclosure as it can be seen today (Figure 1).

Since then, the neighborhoods of the old city continue to be divided in two by the walls. Within the walls (Dalt Vila) there are two distinct urban areas, namely the urban area of medieval origin (8th–15th centuries) (Figure 2a) and the Renaissance urban area or Vila Nova (16th century). Outside the walls are the neighborhoods of Sa Peña (17th century), La Marina (14th to 19th centuries) (Figure 2b) and Vara de Rey (20th century). Currently, there are few residents in these neighborhoods, since many moved to the new neighborhoods of the expansion. The neighborhood of La Marina and the suburb of Dalt Vila have been eminently tourist areas for several decades and have very few traditional establishments [9]. On the other hand, it should be noted that the silhouette of the old city, seen from the port, is one of the most characteristic images of the island, along the coasts, and the symbol of the city in tourism promotion.

4.2. The Rural Architecture

One of the most striking features of Ibiza is the absence of towns until very recently. Before the appearance of towns, the entire rural population was dispersed [75]. The towns of Sant Antoni and Santa Eulàlia were an initiative of the 18th century Enlightenment, without much success at the beginning. The rest of the towns were created in as recently as the 20th century and, in many cases, their growth was fostered by the tourist boom [76]. All the traditional towns on the island arose due to the building of houses around the previously existing churches, with the town taking its name from the saint to whom the church was consecrated [77]. The most recent neighborhoods or towns arose from the subdivision of previous rural properties and usually bear the name of the original property, with the exception of some coastal developments. The existing traditional buildings in the Ibizan countryside are of the following four main types: single-family rural house; rural churches; coastal towers; and farm towers.

• The single-family rural house was the traditional house of the Ibizan countryside. Architecturally speaking, they were an accumulation of rectangular volumes that were added at different times, without apparent order and for multiple uses, since these constructions were housing and agricultural production units (Figure 3). This architecture gives an image of primitivism to traditional houses [75,76,77].

• The rural churches (Figure 4) are based on the same architectural concept as rural houses and have characteristics that differentiate them from most European churches which makes them similar to some buildings in Greece, Italy, Morocco or Tunisia [75,77], such as the mosques on the island of Djerba (Tunisia). They are austere, robust buildings with a double function, as a building for the Catholic cult and as a refuge and defense in case of pirate attacks [75,76]. The defensive function implies the refuge of the nearby population and the use of defensive artillery. For this reason, the rural churches of Ibiza and Formentera do not have a bell tower and the bells are located in a small belfry (Figure 5). As part of the defensive function, the roof or an attached tower, as in the case of Sant Antoni and Santa Eulàlia, were prepared to house artillery pieces operated by members of the Royal Militia [78,79]. The architectural characteristics created by the double functionality of rural churches make them an austere but highly original architecture within Spain, and is often commented on by visitors.
• The first defensive line of Ibiza and Formentera, between the 13th century and the beginning of the 19th century, were boats with letters of marque and reprisal that navigated the surrounding waters. The second defensive line was made up of the city walls and various towers along the coast of Ibiza, Formentera and Espalmador (Figure 6). This type of tower also exists in other parts of the Mediterranean [79]. Theoretically, and together with the city walls, these towers created a defensive line with artillery fire to prevent the landing of pirates and enemy troops, but the existence of some areas without sufficient towers and the scarcity of artillery pieces did not allow for the closing off of this defensive perimeter correctly. In the first phase (16th and 17th centuries), the following four towers with very diverse architectures were erected: tower of the church of Santa Eulàlia, tower of the church of Sant Antoni, tower of Sa Sal Rossa, and tower of Ses Portes. The tower of Sa Sal Rossa was designed as a refuge for the workers of the salt flats. The tower of s’Espalmador represents a transition to the second phase. The second phase (second half of the 18th century) was designed by Juan Ballester, Jerónimo Cánoves and José García Martínez, and is made up of the remaining nine towers. In this case, they were built based on three standard typologies present throughout the Spanish coastline [78]. Currently, these towers are in different states of conservation and restoration.

• The farm towers were small towers that served as a defense for the inhabitants of a rural house. They are of different architectures and date back to different periods (15th to 18th centuries), in addition to being smaller in size and with a much simpler design than the previous ones. Originally, they were separated from the house to prevent attackers from using the house as a parapet, but when they lost their original use, they were reused as warehouses and, in some cases, added to the houses in later extensions. The result was the image of rural houses with an attached tower that has been replicated in modern constructions [78]. Historically, there were more than a hundred of these particular towers, but many have been lost or are in a very poor state of conservation, while others have been greatly altered from their original design. Consequently, there are few left and they are not usually open to visitors.

Pirate attacks from North Africa that occurred from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century imposed on the island a vision and architecture focused on defense [79]. This defense materialized in the Renaissance walls of the city [72], in the coastal defense towers [78], in the churches (conceived as a fort and refuge for the population) and in the farm towers (last rural defense). This situation also materialized in the existence of a Royal Militia, made up of inhabitants capable of fighting [80], and captains with letters of marque and reprisal [81]. Militiamen and corsairs formed an extension of the regular forces (army and navy) of the kingdoms of Spain. There was also an autarkic mentality fostered by the fear of naval blockades [4]. This border zone situation for centuries, in addition to a certain isolation from European cultural influences, facilitated the formation of a characteristic rural architecture and culture that is different from that existing in other regions of Spain [75,77], with this difference accounting for the main cultural attraction of the island.

4.3. Cultural Landscapes

There is a relatively well-preserved example of rural Ibiza in the 14,000 hectares of the Es Amunts area (Figure 7). In addition, there are two landscapes of interest for their originality, namely Ses Feixes and Ses Salines (salt flats).

Es Amunts is an area in the north of the island (Figure 7) divided between the municipalities of Sant Antoni, Sant Joan and Santa Eulària, since it covers a 29-kilometre arc of coastline that stretches from Cala Salada to es Raigs. Es Amunts includes the parish centers of Santa Agnès de Corona, Sant Mateu d’Albarca, Sant Joan de Labritja and Sant Llorenç de Balàfia. It is a mountainous barrier parallel to the coast with elevations above 300 m and reaching 410 in Puig d’es Fornàs. Law 1/1991, of 30 January, declared it to be a natural area of special protection because it is the area with the greatest natural wealth on the island, both in flora and fauna. The reason for the lack of tourist development in this area is due to the fact that it has a very steep coastline with small coves that are difficult to access. Exceptions are the port of Balansat or Sant Miquel, located in the center, and the cove of Sant Vicent, located at the eastern end. The karstic characteristics of the land allowed rounded plains to appear in the middle of the mountains, which stand out for the red land and the existing crops (vines, fruit trees and cereals) in es Pla, Albarca and Corona [82].

The name Ses Feixes refers to the portions of arable land resulting from the drainage of marshy land located in the vicinity of the port of Ibiza and the nearby bay of Talamanca (Figure 7), and surrounded by ditches that facilitate the control of land drainage [83]. Access to the plots was provided through gates with wooden bars, called Portals de Feixa [84]. The ditches separated the plots from the paths and from adjoining plots. In the past, Ses Feixes reached an area of 600,000 square meters spread over 145 plots [84,85]. The oldest of these plots date from the end of the 17th century, since until then the areas located on the western shore of the port and Talamanca beach were marshy strips. It was in 1685 that the owners of these areas began to clean up the Prat de Vila (located closer to the city). In the 18th century, the process was repeated at the Prat de Ses Monges, near Talamanca beach [83]. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Prat de Vila practically disappeared and the Prat de Ses Monges deteriorated considerably [84]. During a visit to the Prat de Ses Monges, six plots were found to be in normal conditions, while the rest were in varying degrees of abandonment. The Prat de Vila can be considered totally lost, and is no longer included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscription [9].

The salt flats of Ibiza, and those of Formentera, are the result of human action in two areas that, possibly, were originally wetlands. It is considered that the exploitation of the salt flats began in the Punic era, continuing uninterruptedly until today. Over time, the salt flats grew and improved, reaching maximum production at the beginning of the 20th century [76]. The salt flats of Ibiza occupy about 400 hectares and make up the largest wetland area on the island. Currently, they are owned by Salinera Española S.A. and produce between 40,000 and 50,000 tons per year [86]. The salt flats of Ibiza are within the Natural Park of the salt flats of Ibiza and Formentera (Figure 7), which includes the salt flats of Ibiza, the salt flats of Formentera and the marine area located between the two islands, and known as Es Freus. After Es Amunts, the salt flats are one of the terrestrial spaces with the greatest natural wealth. On the other hand, Es Freus is the area with the greatest marine natural wealth in Ibiza and Formentera, constituting the main natural element of the UNESCO World Heritage Site [9].

4.4. Traditional Culture

Although it is much more complex and holds great peculiarities that differentiate it from other nearby regions (dances, courtship, fondness for weapons, etc.), the most visual assets, for tourists, of the traditional culture of Ibiza are the traditional clothes and dances. These assets have been promoted since the seventies and eighties and are shown to tourists very frequently in local festivities and events specially created for tourists.

The typical dance of Ibiza is known as Ball Pagès (peasant dance). This dance is characterized by the great difference in clothing and physical effort between men and women (Figure 8). It is very different from other Spanish and European folk dances and its origin is not understood with certainty, but it seems to have very ancient roots, and for some it has similarities with traditional dances from the Eastern Mediterranean. The dance is accompanied by music that is circulated orally and without sheet music, and which is performed by percussion instruments (drum, espasí and castanets) and wind (flute). The typical dance is normally performed with traditional gala clothes, except in well parties where work clothes were usually worn, due to its more informal origin. Of the instruments, the enormous size of the castanets stands out, with similarities to those of La Gomera (Canary Islands), and the espasí, which resembles the blade of a sword. Until the 1930s, the folk dance of Ibiza was very much alive among the population, but it was abandoned because its origins were in the countryside and everything rural was seen as a symbol of backwardness, as opposed to the urban. With the Tourist Boom, a large number of people arrived from outside the island and there a growing interest in recovering native assets emerged. This led to the traditional dance being recovered in the seventies by the folk groups known as “colles de ball pagès” that was created to recover local traditions. There are currently 16 folk groups in Ibiza and Formentera, grouped in the Federation of Dance Groups and Popular Culture of Ibiza and Formentera since 1998, and dances are performed at patron saint and civil festivities. These groups also perform at some weddings, outside the church, parties and at special events for tourists.

The usual clothes in the traditional dance have different versions. In the case of women, there is the white dress (typical of brides), colored dress (the most modern version) and the gonella (the oldest version, originating in the 18th century or earlier). The traditional women’s dress is visually spectacular, especially because of the jewelry that accompanies it, including up to twenty-four gold rings with erotic symbols, earrings with large filigree, gold filigree buttons on the cuffs of the sleeves and the emprendada, a name given to a set of necklaces, chains and a cross and necklace with images of saints that they wear on their chests. Historically, there have been two types of emprendada, and the silver and coral one are worn exclusively with the gonella dress, representing the oldest known version of female attire (originally from the 18th century) and the gold one is worn with the white dress or the colored dress and is more recent and vibrant [87]. In the case of men, there is the white dress (in white, with a colored vest) and the gonella (it is the old version and with black trousers and jacket), with silver filigree buttons on the vest.

5. Discussion

The primacy of sun and beach tourism in Ibiza has been maintained from its beginnings to the present [55], despite the fact that since the beginning of the 20th century there have been attempts to promote the various assets of the island’s cultural heritage [5]. The result is that many people feel that the island’s potential as a cultural tourism destination is greatly underutilized [6]. In addition, there have been actions in relation to the island’s heritage, but these actions have strengths and weaknesses [9].

Various assets located in the city or its immediate surroundings have seen their relevance recognized with their inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List [9]. After a first attempt in 1986, a new application was presented in 1998 to inscribe various natural and cultural assets [88,89,90]. Finally, on December 4, 1999, UNESCO inscribed “Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture” on the World Heritage List, with the reference 417Rev [9]. The inscribed assets, with a total area of 9020 hectares, were [91] the prairies of Posidonia oceanica; the upper town (Dalt Vila) of Ibiza and its 16th century walls; the Phoenician Punic necropolis of Puig des Molins; and the Phoenician Punic archaeological site of Sa Caleta. The assets that make up the site’s protection or buffer area, with a total area of 7568 hectares, are Sa Peña, La Marina, Es Soto, Ses Feixes and Ses Salines.

After inscription, various actions were carried out to promote the old city as a cultural attraction. The musealization of the walled enclosure and the improvement in lighting is possibly the most visible change. The musealization made it possible to recover and restore degraded areas of the Renaissance wall, but maintenance is not sufficient, because significant deterioration after restoration is already visible. In addition, the assets inscribed on the World Heritage List suffer from a strong bias in promotion and institutional investment. Promotion is concentrated in the old city and almost all the investments of the Ibiza World Heritage Consortium have been made within the city, while the rest of the inscribed assets have a residual weight in promotion and public management [8,9].

In Ibiza, there are various museums with archaeological (the two venues of the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera), artistic (Museum of Contemporary Art, Diocesan Museum and Puget Museum), or ethnographic (Ibiza Museum of Ethnography) themes, but there are frequent closures due to rehabilitation work or a lack of financing. They have many conservation and restoration technician jobs pending to be filled and the volume of visits is very low. In the best cases, they receive 20,000 to 24,000 visits a year [9] and half of them are schoolchildren from the island itself. The situation is worse in the interpretation centers and small museums on the island, since they are open very few hours a week and the promotion of visitors is anecdotal.

The situation of traditional buildings located outside the city is uneven. The rural churches are kept in good condition thanks to the interest of the residents and the actions of the culture departments of the town halls and the Ibiza Island Council. It is worth highlighting the installation of glass security doors by the Sant Joan town hall so that the interior of the churches can be seen without the need for permanent guards or placing the integrity of the furniture inside at risk. The originality of the architecture of these churches is complemented by the spectacular nature of the locations, usually situated on high promontories with panoramic views. These locations contribute to its attractiveness for wedding celebrations, which is highly demanded in some churches. In more recent times, the creation of some type of route involving visits to various rural churches has been considered. This route would be linked to the pilgrimage to the Holy Grail [92,93,94] preserved in the Cathedral of Valencia. In general, the churches represent the element of rural architecture with the best conservation and are the easiest to visit, as they are still in use and receive financial support for their conservation.

The coastal towers are in very varied situations, as some are preserved in good conditions, such as the towers attached to the churches of Sant Antoni and Santa Eulàlia, while others are quite deteriorated and some have been restored, such as the tower of es Molar and the tower of en Valls, conveying their original form with great accuracy. With the exception of the two towers located in churches, these towers are difficult to access for visits because they are located in remote and steep places, and originally situated based on military and not tourist or accessibility criteria. Possibly, they are one of the least exploited architectural resources for the development of cultural tourism, despite being a historically complementary element to the Renaissance walls.

The privately owned assets (houses, farm towers, wells, etc.) show very diverse situations, ranging from total ruin to high quality restorations, passing through various levels of conservation and success in rehabilitation. In many cases, these architectural assets have undergone significant changes that have altered their original style, but were necessary to meet modern habitability standards. In other cases, these assets are in a state of ruin or have disappeared, one of the most common causes being the lack of funding for their conservation or restoration. Traditionally, the main dispute in relation to these assets has been due to the level of regulation on the use of these assets. The administrations seek to prevent them from losing their historical value and excessive permissiveness that allows for the urbanization of rural areas has not yet been altered. Owners seek freedom over their properties in order to decide how to adapt these properties to their current needs. An example of a confrontation between the administration and the owners occurred at the beginning of 2015 with the catalog of cultural assets of the Sant Antoni town hall, when erroneous cataloging occurred and there was a probable risk that the cataloging of an asset would imply strong restrictions on its use and rehabilitation.

The situation of the countryside is diverse and in many properties the activity has been abandoned due to a serious lack of profitability, but in Es Amunts and some other areas, agricultural and livestock production is maintained. In Es Amunts, various places of interest can be highlighted as examples of traditional agricultural activities that receive a certain volume of visits, such as the following:

• The almond trees of the Corona plain (in the center of Saint Agnes Parish) have become a tourist attraction during their flowering, similarly to the situation with the cherry trees in the Jerte Valley [95,96]. Unfortunately, the owners suffer inconveniences, mainly due to the custom of some visitors to cut almond tree branches as souvenirs. To this must be added the traffic congestion in the affected area, which has forced the creation of dissuasive car parks and the dedication of personnel to manage traffic and car parks. Additionally, in recent years, many of the almond trees have died from the persistent lack of rain.
• Another element of interest is the water upwelling of Es Broll in the Buscastell stream (located between Saint Agnes, Saint Gertrude, Saint Raphael and Saint Anthony). It consists of an area irrigated by means of ditches that take advantage of the constant flow of water that emerges from the upwelling, but it is also affected by the lack of rain in recent years. In terms of the landscape type and value, it would be close to what Ses Feixes would have in an acceptable state of conservation.

As for the wetlands near the city of Ibiza, the situation in Ses Feixes is severe. Currently, the Prat de Vila is unrecoverable as part of it is urbanized and the rest is highly degraded and is susceptible to urbanization. The Prat de Ses Monges could be partially recovered, but it is a problematic and difficult recovery [84] as it depends on a phreatic level that has dropped enormously in recent decades. In a visit to the Prat de Ses Monges, six small plots were counted in a state that could be described as acceptable, whereas in the rest of the cases they were in more or less advanced states of deterioration. These areas depended on the abundance of water and as the phreatic level dropped, they began to lose their use and the corresponding landscape value. This process led to the current situation, with the possible recovery being complex and limited.

The salt flats are in better condition since productive activity is maintained. The persistence of the activity is due to the quality of the salt extracted, mainly destined for export, and to the actions of Salinera Española S.A. to modernize production procedures and offer products with high added value, such as fleur de sel or sea salt crystals, focused on the gourmet market. However, the strong restrictions due to the Natural Park limit maintenance and improvement works on the ponds and ditches, something repeatedly criticized by the company as it hinders the continuity of economic activity.

In relation to the immaterial culture of the island, there has been a disconnection in its generational transmission, leading to a loss of authenticity and naturalness. While at the beginning of the 20th century it was a living culture transmitted orally from generation to generation, today it is a culture based on canonical books, highlighting the work of Joan Castelló Guasch. Joan Castelló made a huge effort to collect the oral culture of Ibiza, but by choosing one version he forced the disappearance of the other existing versions of the stories. Today, the cultural variations are being lost in favor of the canon established by a few authors.

For their part, the island’s folklore groups have revived the dances and clothing, learning from the few older people who know these traditions. This has led to a recovery of traditions that are more a recreation [97,98] than a true recovery. We have an example of this change in traditional jewelry and, since the seventies, the new jewels respect traditional designs, but are less voluminous and are made with gold for jewelry of lower purity than that used until the beginning of the 20th century. It should be noted that these folklore groups have grown in size and number since the appearance of the first in the seventies, and this implies the management of important budgets and the risk that this entails.

At present, cultural tourism is reduced to visits to the old city (Dalt Vila) on bad days to go to the beach [9], some visits to the towns in the interior of the island (including their churches) and folk-dance shows for tourists. The rest of the assets have little weight in terms of visits and promotion, despite attempts by local administrations to promote alternative offers, as is the Strategic Tourism Segments. Another cultural element not treated here but that is being promoted is gastronomy, but at the moment only the Bullit de Peix (a typical fish stew of the island) has a significant weight. Therefore, both tangible and intangible heritage have a lot of work to do in terms of tourism analysis and promotion.

6. Conclusions

In the first known tourist guide, Ibiza, Guía del Turista, from 1909, quite complete information was provided on the cultural and landscape values of Ibiza [5]. At that time, it was considered that the future of tourism on the island would be determined by the cultural and natural heritage, but from the thirties it was the beaches that boosted tourism. Actions such as inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List have attempted to enhance the cultural tourism offer [9], but it is very limited (visits to towns and old city, folk-dance shows offered to tourists, and a few more small items) and complementary to other offers.

The degree of conservation of material heritage is uneven. The Renaissance walls, the rural churches, the salt flats, and some towers and rural houses are in a good state of conservation. On the other hand, many towers, houses and farmland (Ses Feixes being particularly noteworthy) are abandoned and in ruin. The actions of the administrations have caused discussion and confrontations between politicians, activists, businessmen and residents, since it is very difficult to combine heritage protection with the freedom that owners need to manage their assets. Regarding intangible heritage, there is a risk of petrification of the official traditional culture, disconnection from local society and loss of the ancient variability in local traditions.

Although the offer based on natural and cultural heritage is the most valued by residents [6], a cultural tourism offer capable of attracting tourists to Ibiza by itself has not been created. Cultural activities have been promoted (excursions, visits, etc.) but they are isolated and complementary assets to the traditional tourist offer of sun and beach. The tourist promotion of the cultural offer is little compared to the offer of beaches, coasts and nightlife. In addition, in some cases the degree of conservation of cultural assets is not optimal and there are difficulties in visiting it, due to the timetables and temporary closures of sites, interpretation centers and museums.

To ensure that heritage generates significant benefits, a combination of culture and nature is necessary that is capable of attracting tourists to Ibiza for stays of several days. This would result in the creation of tourist routes that combine material heritage, natural spaces, local folklore and traditional cuisine. This would seek to design a tourist product that would achieve an unforgettable experience for the visitor, justifying trips to Ibiza exclusively for cultural tourism.

On the part of the administrations, it is necessary to create an attractive promotion of this type of tourist offer, publicizing the heritage assets and the museum and interpretation centers offering extensive opening hours. In addition, it is necessary to venture beyond concrete and isolated actions with global and long-term planning that is maintained beyond the four years that local governments last. Otherwise, it will fall into the typical error of specific projects and campaigns that are counteracted by the actions of the next local government.

The main limitation of this study is that it is a primarily descriptive work, without specific data that allow for measuring the current importance of this offer, beyond the data of visits to museums and interpretation centers. Therefore, in future studies, the exposed assets should be analyzed quantitatively, mainly the degree of knowledge and interest of current and potential tourists for these assets of the island’s cultural heritage. This would take the form of conducting surveys among visitors to measure the levels of recognition of the various heritage assets, both material and immaterial, and their intention to visit. After the first quantitative measurement, causal studies should be initiated to identify what motivates the island’s tourists to make a cultural visit.