Members of the rent-a-car association predicted there would be around 10,000 vehicles available to hire across the two islands this summer, the highest since before recession set in three years ago. Although there may have been a large number of tourists in Ibiza and Formentera, it was not necessarily good news for the sector, as the excess of vehicles led to price cutting which meant lower profit margins. The sector has also had to face problems with finance as credit is hard to come by, but if the fleet is not kept up to date, then the customers will go elsewhere; there are around 50 companies in Ibiza and 30 in Formentera, so they have plenty of car hire companies to choose from. The new car dealers are keen to sell to these lucrative customers, as they buy by the dozen rather than the unit, and they are therefore prepared to make considerable concessions.
At the moment the association anticipates prices similar to those of last year, but this very much depends on demand during the summer and they could fluctuate.