The quantity of tourists visiting the Canaries and in particular Lanzarote continues to rise according to the latest data just released by ISTAC, so providing further fuel for the new regional president’s recent proclamation about limiting the number of passenger arrivals in the archipelago each year in order to protect the islands from Magaluf style over-crowding and to conserve the unique environment of destinations such as Lanzarote from degradation.
Over the first six months of this year Lanzarote alone has already welcomed a total of 1,174,611 holidaymakers, an increase of 4.13% versus 2014’s already exceptional figures and this is the largest percentage growth of all island’s in the Canaries. Given recent and current events in rival destinations such as Tunisia and Greece this figure looks set to grow further over the course of 2015, as tourists seek alternatives. Leaving Lanzarote on course for its best ever year in terms of arrivals.
However not everyone is happy with this amazing growth, despite the fact that tourism accounts for around 30% of total GDP in the Canaries. Indeed, the new President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has been grabbing headlines in the UK with his recent statements about the need to impose a cap on tourist numbers in the future, which was interpreted in certain quarters of the British media as an attempt to ban British holidaymakers.
In fairness Clavijo was simply floating the idea that the Canaries need to look towards creating a more sustainable model of tourism that benefits the wider society more as whole in order to ensure that the islands are not swamped by holidaymakers looking for cheap all inclusive deals that generate income for the big chains and nobody else besides. A quality over quantity argument that few could argue with, especially if they have ever visited other Spanish destinations where the latter has long since held sway over the former.
The latest figures also reveal that the UK’s ongoing love affair with Lanzarote continues unabated as over 530,000 British tourists have touched down at Arrecife airport during the first six months of this year, a record figure for this period. Whilst German and Irish arrivals are also up by 26% and 11% respectively and French tourism continues to boom.
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