Ibiza

One of the Balearic Islands, a popular tourist resort; area 596 sq km/230 sq mi; population (2001 est) 94,300. The island ships chiefly salt, wool, and fruit; industries include construction, metals, transformers, and lumber; there are also lobster fisheries. The capital and port, also called Ibiza, has a cathedral, built sometime between the 14th and 16th centuries. There are Phoenician ruins (necropolises), and the renowned archaeological museum houses Phoenician and Carthaginian remains considered the best of their kind in Spain.

Since the late 1980s, the island of Ibiza has become synonymous with dance music, and is one of the most popular resorts for young people, with holiday-makers (largely from the UK) flooding to the island every summer. Ibiza has many huge dance clubs, and some of the largest clubs in the UK run events on the island every summer.

There have been fears for the safety of people holidaying on the island. For some clubbers, drug-taking is an integral part of the experience, with many of them taking the drug ecstasy. The cost of water, which is needed to prevent dehydration, especially after consumption of the drug, can be very high in most clubs. In the summer of 1999, fears were further heightened by the number of people killed or injured by vehicles on the roads between the clubs and Ibiza town, which are poorly lit.