The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo, and the island councilor of Tourism Promotion, Ángel Vázquez, held a meeting this Tuesday with senior officials of Jet2 in which they closed an increase of almost 56,000 places for this winter, 16,000 more than initially planned by the British operator.
In this way, Jet2, which has become one of the leading tour operators in the British industry, will go from offering 163,471 seats to 219,407, that is, 34.2% more, which means that it will absorb almost 50% of the seats lost with the United Kingdom after the collapse of Thomas Cook. "Good news that is also joined by the announcement made by two other important air operators, TUI RU (United Kingdom) and easyJet, which also plan to increase places," they point out from the Cabildo.
The Lanzarote delegation transferred to London thus culminated this Tuesday the 40th edition of the World Travel Market 2019 and according to the president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, "with hopeful expectations and the confirmation that Lanzarote is a unique destination in the world, differentiated, unique, with an exceptional landscape and consolidated in the competitive international tourism market".
Increase in September despite the fall of Thomas Cook
On the other hand, Ángel Vázquez points out that "there have been two intense days of work in which we have designed an agenda precisely and we have met with 9 of the 10 most powerful operators and main protagonists of the British tourism market." "The effort of the Lanzarote delegation," adds the councilor, "has focused on trying to recover the air seats left by the British operator Thomas Cook, so that the necessary connectivity can be covered to respond to the great demand that undoubtedly exists."
From the Cabildo they also remember that Lanzarote registered last September an increase in British tourism of 2%, despite being without Thomas Cook operating for a week last month. In fact, it was the only Canary Island in which the arrival of visitors from the United Kingdom increased, which demonstrates, in the opinion of the councilor, "the attraction and affection that British tourism continues to show for our destination." In the accumulated of the first nine months of this year (from January to September) the increase in Anglo-Saxon tourism was 4.6% compared to the same period of the previous year.
In this sense, the team of the Island Promotion Entity has started for the first time in this fair promotional contacts with Travel Republic, one of the OTAs (Online travel agency) belonging to the top ten of the British tourism industry, in order to incorporate it into its network of collaborators.
Likewise, senior officials of the British flag company, British Airways, whose client traditionally responds to a higher-end profile, informed the Lanzarote delegation that for next summer it will increase its air seats with Lanzarote by between 5 and 10%. The SPEL plans to sign marketing agreements with its operator, British Airways Holidays, which has been experiencing an upward growth to the point of currently becoming the fifth in Great Britain.
"Good forecasts" for the Netherlands
Another of the "good news" of the fair, according to the Cabildo, has come from TUI Nederlands, which has announced that it will increase air seats with Lanzarote by 40% for this winter. The Netherlands has been one of the central objectives to be covered in the WTM by the team of the Island Promotion Entity, being the fifth market for the island and one of the most affected by the sinking of Thomas Cook. Turismo Lanzarote and TUI NL plan to sign an important promotional agreement at the next FITUR fair to support the outstanding connectivity commitment made by the Dutch tour operator.
In the same line, the meeting held with Sanoma, a powerful Dutch communication group, with great diversity and segmentation of magazines and publications, which has just created a tourist division, has taken place. Contacts have been initiated with this group aimed at developing promotional actions focused specifically on the tourist products that the island has, as well as the possibility of organizing specific events for the same purpose, in the search for a very interesting client for the island due to its higher level of spending.
Other markets
Within the strategy of diversification of markets in order to reduce dependence on the British, the island entity highlights the promotion by the countries of Southern Europe, markets related to our destination and that are characterized by a higher spending. Among them is the French market, whose main tour operator by far in Lanzarote is the French group Thalasso nº1-Ôvoyages, which announced that it will close the year 2019 with a growth of 5% and estimates the same percentage of increase for the whole of 2020.
Also Barrhead Travel, the first Scottish tour operator, which has Jet2 and TUI as air collaborators, announced a slight improvement in its prospects towards the island, while the Polish tour operator Itaka confirmed to the Lanzarote delegation an increase of 37% of the places for 2020.
With Ireland, erected as the second most important market for the island so far in 2019, Sunway, the main operator in Lanzarote, announced that for this same winter season it will resume the weekly connection with the airport of Knock, which is added to the routes that currently has with Cork, Shannon and Dublin. This Irish operator will also maintain with the island next summer the only charter flight it has in the Canary Islands.