José Luis Benítez(Ibiza, 1969) started working in entertainment when he was only 17 years old.
He made his career at Space.
More than three decades later, he is still working in one of the most important tractors of the Ibizan economy, if not the most important one.
His main activity is as Director of Institutional Relations for the Palladium Group, part of the Matutes Group of Companies , owner of the best club in the world, Hï Ibiza, of the third one, Usuhaïa Ibiza, and of the future hyperclub [UNVRS]Univers, pronounced Univers, which is being built in what was once Privilege and before that Ku, the largest discotheque in the world.
It is also co-owner, together with Empresas Alonso Marí and Vivir Descalzo, of Playa Solei.
For the operation of the nightclubs, Empresas Matutes maintains a solid alliance with Yann Pissenem and his company The Night League.
He is, however, best known for being the visible face of the Ibiza Leisure Association, the entity that this year celebrated its tenth anniversary and which encompasses the leisure industry that has made Ibiza famous in all corners of the world.
He is the man behind the dance floors of Ibiza.
Almost nothing.
In his spare time, he is president of International Nightlife and member of the board of directors of Spain Nightlife and, therefore, engaged in the next congress that will again choose the best clubs in the world and where Ibiza placed in 2023 to four locals among the top 10.
He is also vice president of Fomento del Turismo de Ibiza, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce of Ibiza and Formentera, as well as member of the board of the Hotel Federation of Ibiza and Formentera. He makes a gap in his busy schedule to submit to the questionnaire of La Voz de Ibiza.
–With so many positions and so much responsibility, you are in a privileged vantage point from which to observe the evolution of the tourism and leisure sector… I suppose it is your age that gives you that privilege… And the contacts...Also… Ibiza seems more and more the only place in the world that does not want to look like Ibiza…
-Yes, we love to flagellate ourselves.
I think that for the Ibizans to deny what is ours is like a national sport.
Although we all know that Ibiza lives from tourism, nowadays we like tourism less and less.
Therefore, it is an important contradiction.
-And what about the leisure industry?
-We are always the bad guys in the movie.
Since I started in this, when I was 17 years old, leisure has been bad.
Nobody seems to have been able to realize how the sector has evolved.
We are a very important complement to the tourism industry because we are number one in the world in leisure.
We are the best and we are recognized as such all over the world.
One of the reasons for the success of Ibiza’s leisure and Ibiza in general is that we have many and very good nightclubs.
It is very important to keep it that way, because the day we have only one discotheque left, we will fall like a house of cards.
There are good discotheques in many places in the world.
Now, four or five big top-level venues like there are here, in such a small area, makes us unique.
And the best DJs in the world come to play here and they always want to be here.
That’s a very positive thing.
Can you expand on the idea that leisure has become an add-on?
-Ibiza is much more than leisure.
We have wonderful beaches, an incredible gastronomy, we have more and more high-level sporting events and we have people with a very open mind.
Ibizans, I guess because of the influence of the hippies, we are the most open-minded people, without a doubt.
All that is very good, and if you also have the best leisure in the world, we have a magic potion that smells great.
Leisure, Ibiza’s driving force
-Which came first, the chicken or the egg…
It does not put leisure as a tractor of Ibiza…
-It is one of them.
By now, four years ago the nightclubs would have practically all closed down and almost everybody would have closed down because the hotels go hand in hand with the nightclubs.
However, now we are going until mid-October or more.
It’s the same thing that happens at the beginning of the season.
We open in April, something that never happened before.
People have a short memory, but here there were discos that opened in July and closed in September.
This has shown that the leisure businessman is concerned about his environment and wants to do things better.
So the engine, no, but one of the gears that makes things work well, for sure.
-Do you see a problem with an airline company flying from Malta to Ibiza with a DJ playing?
-No.
As long as air safety is assured, I think it is a surprise for those people who come.
People forget that when tourists come to the island looking for leisure, they stay, hopefully, in the regulated offer, eat in restaurants, take transportation, usually take souvenirs, so they spend money.
This is important and people have to realize that in the end it all adds up.
It is the same as if we bring an airplane with a gastronomic theme.
Is it going to look bad to us?
No.
At the end of the day, everybody tries to do better to succeed, and this company is trying to do that.
-Were you surprised by the proposal of the Consell de Ibiza to limit the advertising of discotheques at the airport?
-Yes.
I’d like to think it was a smoke bomb, because if not, I really don’t understand it.
It is true that there is a lot of advertising of discotheques, there is no need to hide it. It is legal advertising, in legal spaces and from legal companies.
So I would have liked the Consell Insular to ask Aena for more security inside the terminal to avoid pirate cabs and improvements in the accesses to be able to arrive in a normal way to the airport and to be able to leave, not that funnel we have there, or to ask to remove the famous bar that is between the parking lot and the terminal?
I was surprised, yes.
And I really didn’t understand it because we have had a few years in which leisure is doing things, in my opinion, very well. It is trying to take care of all aspects as much as possible and be as respectful as possible with everyone and I don’t know why they have to put us in the spotlight when we have not done anything illegal and we generate a lot of wealth on the island.
There is also advertising from beer brands and clothing stores, and from the Consell itself.
-Will this affect the relationship between the Ibiza Leisure Association and the Consell?
-I don’t know, the truth is that we have been a few years in which we are being cornered again in a certain way.
But well, if we look at today (last Thursday) the main written media in Ibiza, they have as front page news a party in a public environment of a DJ and with thousands of people.
These are contradictions.
Personally, I have a very good relationship with the Consell, I think this government team is doing very positive things, just as the previous one also did positive things.
Now they have put the focus on us.
Anyway, I have heard the president of the Consell say that we have the best leisure in the world and that is important, I think he is clear about it, but I do not know if some of his voters do not see us in a good light.
-Will there be a party of Ibiza Leisure hand in hand with the Consell de Ibiza in Fitur? -I don’tknow if in the future we will go hand in hand or maybe we will give a blow to the table and go alone. -I am surprised that leisure does not even appear in the Consell’s marketing plan.
-That’s right.
There seems to be a line of pushing us into a corner.
If we go back to the past and close the discotheques in September, we would all be calmer, but we would not be generating wealth on the island.
The hotels would be closed and 80% of the complementary offer would be closed. The discotheques do not force anyone to come to our premises.
People come because they want to.
The economic contribution of leisure to GDP
-Some years ago, the Ibiza Leisure Association commissioned a study to Professor Carlos Manera on the impact of the sector on the GDP.
Have you considered carrying out this analysis again?
-During the pandemic it made no sense.
Now we have taken up the possibility of updating a study whose conclusions about the power of the sector surprised Carlos Manera himself.
It was something we all sensed and now we know.
At that time, we thought it was important for people to know the importance of the sector, because we still have that rejection from certain parts of society that think that everything in nightclubs is bad.
-He dares to make a forecast on the evolution of the weight of leisure in Ibiza’s economy since the study was carried out.
-We were over 30% of direct GDP, and that is an outrage.
I think it’s going to come out practically the same, if not a point more.
We all see how much the leisure industry moves on this island.
We have a magnificent health, the sector is super professional.
The big halls have more than 50 security personnel, their own infirmaries and a great control of everything that happens inside.
We are talking about 30,000 people partying in Ibiza every night and there are hardly any problems.
Then we see village parties or discotheques in towns or even in the capital, where there are fights with knives, with shots, and all these kinds of incidents.
People know that people come to Ibiza to have fun.
I guess it also helps that we are expensive and nobody wants to get kicked out of a place that has cost them a lot of money to get into.
-What can they do to convince the naysayers?
-When you have detractors, you always have them.
When one of our associates gives a large check to a sports club or does something in solidarity, the detractors criticize him and say that “they do it to cover up”.
To cover up what?
They also complain that we are expensive when it is a very positive thing that we have been able to reach this price level, because if we were cheap, the same type of public would not come and we would have many more problems. It is surreal that we are also accused of contributing to the housing problem by housing our employees.
Whatever we do, we are criticized by our detractors.
Asociación Ocio Ibiza: 10 years and the work of Benítez
-This year, the Ibiza Leisure Association celebrates its tenth anniversary.
In La Voz de Ibiza we titled a decade of good practices and peace in the sector….
-We have done a very good job, in my opinion.
It is important not to forget where we come from.
-How does the manager of Ocio, who also works for a very important company in the leisure industry, and that now will be even more so with the opening of UNVRS?
-I try not to cross red lines.
Even though I am not in the leisure business at the Palladium Group, I put my position at the disposal of the board at every meeting.
The day we are no longer interested in me as manager I will be delighted, someone else will come in and we will try to help them do the best they can.
There are people who don’t like it and people who don’t care.
We are working well, I think we are doing things well. I am very clear about things, I know where some things are and where others are.
If in the future that is not the case, I have no problem in leaving.
