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Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the island's original house music explosion, dance music insiders are predicting a return to clubbing mecca Ibiza's glory days.

"Based on the numbers coming through the door so far, it's going to be the best year ever," says Danny Whittle, brand director of Pacha, the only club already open for this summer's season. "We are getting the sort of volume that we would normally expect in late June."

The Spanish-owned Balearic island, located in the Mediterranean, has had a reputation as a party haven since the hippie era. Dance music arrived on the island in 1988, leading to more than a decade of booming business, during which many of the world's biggest clubs-including Privilege, Space, Eden and Amnesia-set up on the island. But more recently, it has been in decline, mirroring the drop in dance music sales experienced in many markets.

Figures from Inestur, the Balearic Islands Tourism Authority, show foreign arrivals on Ibiza fell 1.7% annually on average between 2001 and 2007. But, as the 2008 season prepares to kick off, arrivals by air are up 3.4% year-on-year, with arrivals from the United Kingdom (up 49%) and Germany (up 13.4%) leading the way. Whittle says advance bookings at Hotel Pacha are up 15% and reservations for the club's VIP area up 25% year-on-year.

Now a wave of optimism is sweeping the island's clubland, despite tough new legislation aimed at curbing Ibiza's 24-hour party image.