At a recent tourism congress in Malaga, Abel Matutes, CEO of the Palladium Group of Hotels, raised a few eyebrows by stating Ushuaia “saved an island that was dead”. The son of the former PP Minister of Foreign Affairs and Don of Ibiza, Abel Matutes Juan, has inherited some of his father’s skill in using tongue-in-cheek statements to address contentious issues. However, that’s about as far as the apple falls from the tree, as Abel Matutes Prats Jnr, is a horse of a different colour compared to his father. Married to American, Linda Scaperotto, he has four children, the eldest named Abel, a family heirloom handed down through generations of the Matutes family. He was born in Barcelona in 1977 and has a love of F1 Racing, Football, and politics. He has more than tripled the turnover of the company, the family built up from the srockyground of Ibiza, considered the Craggy Island of Spain back in the 60s and 70s Last year, the Palladium Hotel Group turned over €600 million alongside the Matutes Group’s other business interests in Air Europa, Baleària Ferries, Banking, company shares and the family’s love of Ibiza real estate.
In 2011, Abel Jnr, in a move that would define his career, convinced a reluctant Matutes Group board to invest over €200 million into the luxury entertainment market and the Ushuaia brand was born. It was a ballsy move by a young man who had graduated from the University of Madrid with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Europe was in recession, and Abel believed that the luxury market offered the best opportunity to make money. At the same time, his father, Abel Sr., was telling his old network of friends and business associates that his son was in danger of losing the family fortune due to excessive gambling in a sector where the company had little experience. An essential factor in the success of the Ushuaia brand was the family’s offer of a partnership role to Yann Pissenem, the owner of the Ushuaia name, at the end of the 2010 summer season. The Frenchman, who had initially opened the Ushuaia Beach Club, played trendy underground techno to the DC10 crowd with appearances from DJs such as Marco Carola and Richie Hawtin. It was an instant success, and Abel Snr was impressed by the Frenchman’s business acumen and style, honed on the streets of Barcelona.
Hence, in true Ibiza fashion, a soon-to-be-dominant Spanish-French alliance was born out of respect and necessity. Abel needed Yann’s creative talent and DJ connections to build his new music empire, and Yann required protection from the fines and licensing laws that were starting to restrict the expansion of his successful bar on Bossa Beach, which had already seen a flash crowd of thousands descend on it for an infamous after-party at Space. It also presented the Frenchman with a blank canvas to nurture and grow his Ushuaia baby within the spirit of Ibiza’s open-air parties, the special Balearic vibe that first attracted Pissenem to invest in Ibiza. His vision to “dance under the moon” found a wealthy and willing partner in Abel, just two years his junior and coming from the same liberal generation influenced by the nineties dance music culture, which was just about to go mainstream with the likes of The Prodigy, The Shamen and SL2 appearing on the UK charts, after years hiding in the rave and acid house woods of Thatcher’s conservative Britain.
The new Ushuaia partnership hit the ground running in 2011, thanks to the launch of Ants, the most successful daytime party ever held on the island, closely related to the original concept of Ushuaia. It added substance and, most importantly, island approval for its music direction and quality. Still, it was not the cash cow that would bring the turnover Abel needed to grow the luxury end of the Hotel business. That came from the booking of top room DJs like Avicii, David Guetta, SHM, and Hardwell, which appealed to the Las Vegas crowd with its ample spending power and penchant for bottle service and partying. The refurbished rooms, some with a $ 10,000 a night price tag, were always booked out, as Saudi Princes and wealthy playboys spent small fortunes on bottles of Champagne and vodka, safe in the knowledge that their partying was always kept private and away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi. A year later, the Ushuaia Tower was refurbished due to demand for the adult-friendly rooms within the Ushuaia Beach Hotel complex, and the Palladium Group’s revenue began to grow in tandem with its respect for the new, fresh “Prince of Ibiza”.
The old Don Matutes, whose experience in the music industry was limited to the Hokey Pokey and other holiday tunes around the pools of his family-friendly hotels, quickly recognised the potential of the luxury product his son had championed and offered him. His gaze soon turned across the road to Space, where Pepe Rosello had transformed a small conference centre Matutes owned into an iconic, award-winning club, built on the spirit of old Ibiza. Least people forget, there was never any club music in Playa den Bossa until Pepe Rosello and Space introduced it in 1986, as Bossa was predominantly a family resort and Space an after-hours venue for Amnesia, Pacha and Privilege. However, by 2014, Space was drifting in direction and several parties there were beginning to feel old and tired. The club lost the services of its star player, Richie Hawtin, when Enter departed after a residency contract could not be agreed upon. It’s legendary party, We Love, was falling apart at the seams due to infighting between the promoters and the club management, and Matutes felt the time was right for a new direction there. Without going into much detail, Matutes gained control of the venue, demolished it, and built a brand-new club in its place, Hi, the resulting offspring of the French-Spanish Ushuaia relationship. Yann’s Parisian, theatre-educated brother, Romain, was drafted in to help construct a state-of-the-art digital theatre inside a club.
Fast-forward to 2018, and the Matutes Group, which had no interest in the clubbing industry seven years prior, except for a silent minority holding in Privilege, was now a major player in the industry. The old spirit of Ibiza was always about creativity, blending elements in a hybrid style that was uniquely Balearic.
The French-Spanish alliance was an old one in Ibiza, dating back to the 1960s when Les Bleus significantly influenced the island with their style, leaving their popular cars, the Mehari and the CV2, imprinted on the island’s culture. Importantly, it was now a Spanish owned company, not an English or German one, that was setting the trends in Ibiza clubland, a fact not lost on its patriotic owner Abel jnr, a loyal and traditional Partido Popular supporter, who in the latter days of Mariano Rajoy’s rule, became an outspoken critic of Rajoy’s botched handling of the Catalan question and how it would impact on the overall health of the party.
Unlike his father and sister, who ran for office and were elected under the PP banner, Abel has not yet declared his intention to run for office. Still, many within the party would see him as an ideal candidate for a new generation of PP rebuilding.
So has Ushuaia saved an Ibiza that was dead? It has undoubtedly been a successful and impressive business venture in such a short space of time. Nothing comes from nothing, and one must applaud the initiative and drive of both men to make it happen. Adapt or risk being left behind in today’s rapidly evolving digital society.
From a business perspective, yes, Ushuaia has lent the island a certain status and helped keep Ibiza relevant today, but so have 10, Pacha, and Amnesia. However, to say that Ibiza was dead in general is going too far; yes, in certain aspects, it was struggling. Still, it was far from dead musically, with respected industry magazine Resident Advisor stating that Ibiza 2009 was “the year that La Isla Blanca fought back” and where “a whole new breed of outdoor day parties started in the beach bars of Playa D’en Bossa” – ironically, Ushuaia being one of them.
There has long been a tradition on the island to maximise profits while tourists are present. The Matutes Group has taken it to a whole new level with the luxury product concept in Playa del Bossa, which now includes the Hard Rock Hotel and Tater restaurant, jointly owned by Matutes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Enrique Iglesias, and Rafa Nadal.
In conclusion, one could surmise that in terms of Spanish cultural identity, Ushuaia has saved Ibiza, which is evident on the ground, with 11,000 people employed by the Matutes group, helping the Hummingbird hover above the Pacha Cherries, serving as the island’s homegrown style mascot.