Private jets, organic farms and enough quinoa to feed the 5,000-strong crowd at Amnesia. Is change in the air at Europe’s clubbing mecca?.

Ibiza. Ever since a young Mr Paul Oakenfold and three friends visited in the summer of 1987 and discovered the eclectic sounds of Balearic beat, the White Isle has been synonymous with dance music. The very name is a byword for clubbing, conjuring up images of darkened rooms, dry ice and lasers beaming out over crowds. The island’s present-day reputation as the dance capital of Europe is well-earned. Of the record 7.1 million visitors to set foot on the White Isle in the summer of 2016, it’s safe to assume that many, if not most, dipped a toe in the famous Ibizan nightlife.

It’s not just giddy twentysomethings on a five-day bender, though. The Ibiza tourism authorities have made little secret of their desire to lure an older, more affluent customer to the island, and a spate of new beach restaurants, private jet routes and luxury hotel openings suggests 2017 might be the year they finally get their wish. Veteran clubbers who partied here in their twenties are beginning to flock back to Ibiza, this time with their kids in tow. They may not make as much noise as the raucous crowds at Privilege, Pacha and Amnesia, but with serious money to burn, they’re poised to have just as much of an impact on Ibiza’s future.

It’s early afternoon in the lobby of the Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay, the latest and most talked-about addition to the island’s burgeoning five-star hotel scene. As you’d expect of the Nobu brand, everything is sleek, minimal and painfully tasteful, a symphony of neutrals interrupted by the odd flash of jade, teal or aquamarine. Strains of down-tempo house music drift in the air of the lobby, which looks out onto the pool where limber, olive-skinned beauties in hippyish kaftans lounge on daybeds, nibbling light salads and sipping Provençal rosé.

Mr Enrique Mandl, the impressively tanned general manager, roams the atrium looking for hands to shake. He is bullish about his new project, and with good reason. The hotel is already nearly fully booked for the season. “We like to think we’re bringing something unique to the White Isle,” he says of the 152-room property, which opened on 30 June. “Nowhere else can you experience the two sides of island life together under one roof.”

Perhaps the most striking thing about Nobu Ibiza Bay is where they’ve chosen to build it. Visitors to Ibiza looking for luxury and tranquility were previously condemned to an upscale private villa in the hills or on the north of the island, well away from the party hotspots of San Rafael, San Antonio and Playa d’en Bossa. Nobu’s property is located on the shores of Talamanca Bay, a stone’s throw from super-club Pacha and only a few minutes further to the Unesco-listed Ibiza Town, which makes it a no-brainer for visitors to the island who want to experience the best of both worlds.

Then there’s the food. Nobu, the hotel’s flagship restaurant, offers perfectly executed takes on established signature dishes, such as black cod miso, yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño and rock shrimp tempura. Choose indoor over outdoor seating and it’ll hardly feel as if you left Los Angeles. A more adventurous option altogether is Peyotito, a modern Mexican restaurant that serves up passionfruit margaritas, 24-hour braised lamb tacos, chargrilled wagyu ribeye with coriander butter and smoked salt, and quinoa tossed with asparagus and almonds.

All of Ibiza seems suddenly keen for quinoa. It’s also offered at Celicioso, a gluten-free bakery in the lobby, where it comes packed in a chef’s ring and served with a tomato and chive garnish, and at Chambao, Ibiza Bay’s on-site chiringuito (glorified beach shack). Over the course of two days on the island, the trendy Peruvian superfood lands on the table no fewer than four times. The pick of the bunch is found half an hour north, down a dusty, single-track road at Aiyanna Ibiza, a recently opened beachfront restaurant on Cala Nova Bay. Here, black and white quinoa comes heaped alongside portions of tomato, kale, cucumber and red onion and presented as a zingy, mix-it-yourself salad bowl.

Offering morning yoga sessions and a “laid-back barefoot chic” vibe, and with an on-site boutique that sells a range of tasteful (and expensive) beachwear, Aiyanna seems to have been designed with much the same customer in mind as Ibiza Bay. Perhaps because of its distance from the town, though, it does a somewhat better job of approximating the easygoing island lifestyle that predates Ibiza’s history as a clubbing destination, and that attracted A-list stars such as Mr Errol Flynn and Mr Orson Welles in the 1950s. You can see how entire days could be spent here in a state of blissed-out langour, the only pressing concerns being whether or not to order another glass of rosé and which artfully plated salad dish to peck at next.

With the number of new, health-focused restaurants to have opened in the past year, it’s tempting to think Ibiza’s food scene simply materialised overnight. In fact, it has been years in the making. Ms Anne Sijmonsbergen moved to the island 12 years ago with her husband, Rene, and their then one-year-old daughter, Sofia, to take over Can Riero, a 450-year-old farmhouse with no hot water and a “crappy” generator. After a few initial “Little House On The Prairie moments”, as she puts it, the farm now supplies top restaurants and private chefs with a range of organic produce.

Her first cookbook, Eivissa, was released last summer, and a new restaurant, El Portalon, opened shortly after. A champion of Ibiza’s burgeoning sustainable food revolution, she has had a front-row seat for the sweeping changes that have taken place on the island over the past few years. “I’m dead impressed with Ibiza and the job the community is doing,” she says. “We have a plethora of large organic farms coming online this year, a real interest in agricultural heritage, species and seed saving. I think it’s all wonderful. It’s a side that many tourists don’t know about.”

The new Nobu Hotel on Ibiza Bay and the array of enticing restaurants springing up across the White Isle will certainly go some way to attracting a new, more mature breed of partygoer to the island. But it is infrastructure that will ultimately decide whether the authorities’ plans to change the face of Ibizan tourism are a success. The island’s sole airport is increasingly unfit to handle the number of people visiting the island each year. This May, passengers departing the island were forced to wade through rubbish to get to their flights when airport cleaning staff went on strike. It hardly fits the profile of a luxury destination.

The private airline sector is moving in to snare this captive market. When the US subscription jet service Surf Air launched its European operation earlier this summer, it chose Ibiza as one of its very first destinations. Mr Simon Talling-Smith, CEO of Surf Air Europe, describes the White Isle as “the perfect summer hotspot” for its members. The airline charges a monthly fee from £1,750 and allows its members to fly as much as they like, meaning that a DJ with a weekly residency in Ibiza could easily commute from London or Zurich. It’s not just superstar DJs flying on Surf Air, though, says Mr Talling-Smith. “We have holidaymakers, second home owners, businessmen. One of the biggest benefits of flying with us is that our members travel with a diverse group.”

Will Ibiza’s reputation as the mecca of dance music survive this invasion of older, well-heeled tourists looking for a little R&R (that’s rave and relaxation)? The answer rather depends on who you ask. To veterans of the club scene, the island lost that title some time ago. With tickets to the biggest parties costing anything up to €80 and a bottle of water costing €10 or more, all but the richest kids have been priced out. The island now has more in common with Dubai or Miami than the Ibiza they once knew. The final nail in the coffin was the closure last summer of one of Ibiza’s most famous venues, Space, which was swiftly replaced with the VIP-friendly Hï Ibiza, where DJs play EDM remixes of Fedde Le Grand and Eiffel 65 and where magnums of Belvedere vodka – a snip at €1,000 – are the tipple of choice. But while the purists might sneer, the stats tell a different story. Tourist numbers were up 14.6 per cent in 2016 and, financially speaking, the club scene appears to be in rude health.

One thing’s for sure: the Ibiza of 2017 is a wildly different place from the freewheeling Balearic paradise those four British DJs stumbled upon 30 summers ago. Somewhat remarkably, given the hurricane of corporate interest that has positioned itself directly above the island in recent years, its hedonistic flame is so far undimmed. Questions remain as to whether Ibiza can succeed in reinventing itself as the grown-up destination the tourist authorities have long dreamed it could be. With the arrival of the five-star hotel that the island has been crying out for, though, not to mention a burgeoning food scene, the White Isle certainly appears to be headed in the right direction.

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