It’s not just the British Prime Minister David Cameron and his family who have been enjoying a holiday on Lanzarote. As after a record breaking year for visitor numbers in 2013 foreign passenger arrivals during the first quarter of this year have soared by 17.93 %, according to the latest data just released by Frontur and the Canarian Institute of Statistics, with British tourism leading the way.
Lanzarote’s popularity as a holiday destination just keeps on growing. Last year the island welcomed over 2 million visitors and this year looks set to be even better, as the first three months of 2014 has seen tourists flocking to the most easterly of the Canary Islands in their droves.
The year started on an upbeat note in January, when the island welcomed 177,889 foreign tourists, an increase of 23.67% versus the previous year’s figures. And this was closely followed by another bumper month in February, when arrivals climbed by 21.53%. The numbers for March are now in and they are equally positive, with the island recording a further upswing of 10.55% – giving an overall increase of 17.93% for the first quarter of 2014, a genuinely amazing start to the year and the best performance of any Spanish regional holiday destination.
British tourism has been the prime mover behind this boom, with no less than 94,805 UK visitors enjoying a break on Lanzarote during March, an increase of 13.4% versus 2013 figures.
So why exactly is Lanzarote, along with the other main Canary Islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, enjoying such a surge in popularity? Sports tourism has certainly been on the rise in recent years as statistics reveal that 166,745 visits during 2013 were sports related. Now that’s quite a large percentage of all tourist visits, but at the same time this figure has only grown by about 50,000 visitors per year since 2006, so there are obviously other factors at play.
The Arab Spring/Middle East crisis of the last couple of years has certainly had a positive impact for the Canaries, as the winds of change swept through countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, which formerly provided keen competition, especially as they are both winter sun destinations with similar journey times from key markets such as the UK and Germany.
But we feel that the main reason is that the cost of air travel from key markets such as the UK has dropped markedly over the last few years. Whilst at the same time the number of flights has increased, along with the number of new routes from countries such as France and Italy which previously accounted for very few visitors to the island.
This is now changing rapidly as these two countries clocked up increases of 71.3% and 110.7% respectively during just March alone, with France now emerging as Lanzarote’s fifth largest national marketplace.
This combination of booming British tourism and fast growing new markets suggests that Lanzarote can look forward to another bumper year.
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