The British tourism presence is declining in Spain but not in the Canary Islands. Turespaa confirmed that in the first seven months of the year, 6% of the visitors who arrived in the country in 2019 before the outbreak of the pandemic were lost. If the setback isn’t greater, it’s because the archipelago is going through the opposite process even though the political and economic context of its main market is not positive.
There was speculation about this before the health crisis forced the closure of the lodging business and the introduction of restrictions on air travel that made it impossible for the lodging business to operate. The effects that Brexit could provoke in the engine of the Canarian economy
Because of both the economic problems affecting the new state in which potential UK travelers reside and the inconveniences that would henceforth accompany passport stamp queues, as is the case for all non-EU citizens.
What has transpired in tourism since the UK withdrawal went into full effect on January 1, 2021? We had to wait until the current year to get an answer because The year 2022 also experienced the coronavirus, the Omicron variant, as an element of distortion.
Between January and July this year, 12.2 million Britons arrived across Spain, 793,260 fewer (-6%) than in the same period of 2019, the last COVID-free period. However, according to the latest statistics published by the Survey of Tourist Movements at the Borders (Frontur), In the first half of this year, 8.58% more people arrived on the islands.
“The start of an inflationary process was favored by the increase in energy prices as a result of the war in Ukraine, accompanied by the unrest it caused in Brexit, and that they anticipate a possible entry into a recession in the economy has led to a decline in the economic capacity of the British,” draws attention to the report on market trends presented by Turespaa.
The analysis tries to approximate the behavior of UK arrivals this summer, but in reality, the scenario has been the same over the past few months. Hence, it is fully embeddable in the approximation to the bite that Britain’s economic insecurity could give tourism to the Canary Islands at the beginning of the last winter season, crucial for the accommodation business in the Autonomous Community.
Between January and June, 2,673,190 visitors from the UK chose the archipelago, 211,331 more than in the same period in 2019. The figures coincide with those of the total activity, which marks a record at the equator of this year 2023, and invites us to think about sufficiently exceeding the limit of 16 million at the end of the year.
All islands where tourism is of great importance have managed to benefit from this impulse from the British market. Those with the longest history have done it with greater intensity, i.e., those whose clientele is not primarily from that country.
start with Tenerife, the main Canary attraction for the British, In the first six months of the year, 1,183,190 travelers arrived. There were 64,625 more than in the first half of 2019, which corresponded to an increase of 5.7%. A big leap forward considering it started with an already very large sum.
Lanzarote attracts more than 70,000 British tourists in the first half of the year
The second-most popular destination for tourists from the UK is Lanzarote. Preventing the loss of even one of the more than 700,000 customers added in the first half of 2019 appeared to be complicated by the loss of purchasing power described in the Turespaa report. However, the 718,137 people housed through June this year are 1,501 more (1.62%) than then.
The structure of demand in Gran Canaria has always had the Germans at the top. The presence of the Nordic countries during the high season and the good response the peninsulas have always had traditionally led to the British being relegated.
So much so that in the first half of 2019, those from the common market of Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns (520,015) contributed the most to arrivals on this island. Next came the Germans (444,623), and In third place are those from Great Britain (352,396).
Absolute tour in Gran Canaria
What has happened since then? The tortilla has completely transformed, and for the first half of this year, it has been UK visitors who have come to Gran Canaria in the greatest numbers. In total, there were 426,165, which is 73,769 more than between January and June 2019. The increase in these four years is 20.9%, which alone explains the change.
However, Fuerteventura recorded the largest relative increase (30.32%). The number of tourists arriving from the United Kingdom at the Majorera tourist accommodation by June reached 335,736, 78,128 more than in the first six months of 2019.
The numbers don’t reveal anything at the moment, with Brexit and the country’s economy faltering under the leadership of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. However, this is not the case in Spain as a whole. It is the secular direct relationship that the archipelago has with the UK that ensures its contribution to the accommodation industry.
