The president of Asolan and of the new Tourism Federation of Lanzarote, Susana Pérez, has warned of a decrease in occupancy. And, although Lanzarote was the only island that registered an increase in the arrival of tourists in June, she states that "the accommodation occupancy is far from following the same trend", because "there are 5,000 homes that represent unfair competition".
"July is about to close, but the trend of these months is still below what it was last year. Furthermore, although we have had good data on tourist arrivals for two or three years, it has not been so much in occupancy, which was three or four points below", said Susana Pérez, who stated that "there are still many illegal holiday homes, which take tourist flow away from regulated establishments, whether it is the holiday homes themselves that do have authorization".
Specifically, the president of Asolan and of the Tourism Federation of Lanzarote, an entity that brings together seven associations from different tourism subsectors, has pointed out that there would be around "5,000 homes that continue to operate on the portals and that are unfair competition to those accommodation companies (hotels, apartments and villas) and holiday homes that do have authorization and registration and that are also supporting an important element such as employment".
Susana Pérez recalled that, according to a study by the Government of the Canary Islands, in 2017 there were about 6,100 holiday homes in Lanzarote. "And the latest data on registered holiday homes a few months ago was around 700 or 800", she pointed out.
"More uncertainty" for autumn and winter due to Brexit
Thus, she considers that this "is one of the main reasons" why accommodation occupancy has decreased. "And the forecasts for July and August, which we are starting, is that this trend will continue at least two or three points below", added Pérez, who, with respect to autumn and winter, pointed out that there is "more uncertainty" due to Brexit, which was postponed until October 31.
In this way, Susana Pérez pointed out that the Tourism Federation of Lanzarote will "monitor at a political level, especially with regard to the connectivity and mobility of passengers so that our destination does not suffer a drop", although she considers that the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union "is already having its effect".
