Yachts on the sea and tourists on the sand crowd Ibiza's tiny S'Illot des Renclí cove in Spain on July 23, 2025.

Yachts on the sea and tourists on the sand crowd Ibiza's tiny S'Illot des Renclí cove in Spain on July 23, 2025.

Photographer: Maria Contreras Coll/Bloomberg

Hotter Summers and Overcrowding Threaten Europe’s Tourist Economies

Overtourism and climate change have created a dangerous feedback loop that endangers Southern Europe’s tourism industry

The Montesol is Ibiza’s oldest hotel. Built in 1933, it’s a neoclassical monolith on a leafy boulevard between the port and the old town of the Spanish island’s capital city. For the last three-quarters of a century, the hotel has hosted generations of Hollywood elite and giants of the music business, while outside Ibiza was transformed from a laid-back haven for 1950s beatniks and bohemians into a Fantasia of mega-clubs, neon lights, giant LED screens and thumping electronic music.

When the French luxury hoteliers Experimental Group took over the property in 2021, they undertook a refurbishment that reflects a new and challenging reality for Ibiza’s tourist industry.