In the midst of a debate about the effects of overcrowding on the daily lives of residents on the islands and their territory, the tourism sector in the Canary Islands is experiencing its most buoyant moment, with unprecedented arrival and turnover figures, in which historical records barely last a month.
The National Institute of Statistics (INE) announced this Monday that the number of foreigners who chose the Canary Islands in March to spend a few days on vacation grew by 18.9% compared to 2023, to stand at 1,543,234 people. That is almost 247,000 more customers than in March last year, although Easter then fell in April.
The turnover generated in the Canary Islands by those 1.54 million tourists amounted to 2,335 million euros in a single month, 20.9% more than in March 2023. At a rate of 1,507 euros per tourist.
Never in a month had the Canary Islands received so many foreign tourists, nor had they ever spent so much on their vacations in just 31 days. These are historical record figures... but that is not new either: the same situation occurred in December and January.
In December, 1,374,111 tourists from other countries arrived on the islands, a figure that already exceeded the record of the pre-pandemic times: the 1,347,702 foreign visitors in March 2018.
In January, the influx fell slightly, to 1,321,100, and February marked a new high, with 1,407,956, a record that only lasted a month. March shattered it with 136,000 more tourists.
The same has happened with turnover: 2,095.73 million in December, 2,006.79 million in January, 2,177.07 million in February and 2,325.39 million in March. It is the sector's ceiling to date.
Several factors influence the total spending of tourists, not only the number of people who travel to the Canary Islands, but also their length of stay and the evolution of prices.
In its high season, which runs from November to Easter, when they have hardly any competition in Europe, the Canary Islands have received more tourists than ever, although month after month it can be seen that average stays are falling. In March they fell by 4.4%.
The other factor that explains why turnover is soaring by 20% in a single month is the rise in prices in the sector.
According to the INE, in March hotel prices accumulated an interannual increase in the Canary Islands of 9.94%, triple the inflation rate (3.2%). They have already accumulated 34 months of increases, since June 2021, with increases that on several occasions have exceeded 20%.
But, in addition, in March the hotels in the Canary Islands were, on average, the most expensive and profitable in all of Spain.
Their average revenue per occupied room was 143.86 euros per day, ahead of Madrid, with 125.70, and Catalonia, with 119.94.
The sector usually takes another magnitude as a reference for profitability: the average revenue per available occupation (occupied or unoccupied).
In March, it was 127 euros per day. In the rest of Spain, no autonomous community reached 100 euros, only Madrid came close to that level, with 90.22 euros per day, and Catalonia remained at 74.86.
As a result of all these factors, when four years have already passed since the pandemic that forced the sector to close for months, tourism has just experienced its best quarter in the Canary Islands since records began: 4.27 million visitors from other countries (half a million more than in 2023 and 2018) and 6,509 million in turnover (almost 1,100 million more than last year).
All these figures mean that, after the massive demonstrations that took place throughout the islands on April 20, not only are measures on the table to implement a tourist tax or introduce limits on the purchase of homes by foreigners (issues that the Government of the Canary Islands has announced that it is willing to explore, transforming the tax into a surcharge on the IGIC of overnight stays), but also a demand for a salary increase.
The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has already publicly asked the sector's employers for this at least three times in the last month. In fact, he had already done so at the last edition of the International Tourism Fair of Madrid (Fitur), when after listening to the sector's employers' associations complain that they could not find enough trained workers, he replied, paraphrasing the President of the United States, Joe Biden: "Pay them more".
