The end of restrictions on July 19 in the United Kingdom, and the exemption from quarantine on return for those who have been vaccinated, has considerably reactivated British tourism, which is historically the most numerous and important for the island of Lanzarote. Last July, a total of 17,164 British citizens arrived on the island, a figure with which they have regained the top position in terms of tourist-sending countries, something that had not happened since December 2020.
The tough measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus in the country during the first six months of the year meant that France was the largest sender of tourists to the island, although with very low numbers as well.
Throughout the first seven months of the year, only 22,336 British citizens have arrived at the César Manrique - Lanzarote airport, which means that 77.84% of the total have done so in the month of July. It should be noted that the restrictive measures imposed by the UK government caused airlines to cancel most routes with the island in the first half of the year, even having the most negative figure in February, with only 20 passengers.
While the United Kingdom became a minor tourist sender, Germany and France have been the main tourist-sending countries to the island. The German country has generated a total of 27,621 tourists in the same period of the year, while the French has been the leader in these seven months, with a total of 36,377. After them would come the British with 22,336, and quite far behind Ireland with 10,916 and Italy with 9,803.
Compared to the first seven months of 2020, in which the total confinement was concentrated in practically all of Europe, the numbers are still lower despite the fact that in the months of April, May and June the island did not receive international flights, with the exception of 202 British visitors at the end of June. From the United Kingdom, for example, a total of 258,876 passengers arrived at the island airport between January and July last year, 72,146 from Germany and 43,878 from Ireland.
Far from the numbers prior to the pandemic
Despite the notable improvement in mobility with foreign countries, there is still an abysmal difference with the passenger data in a summer prior to the coronavirus crisis. In the month of July 2019, for example, the island received a total of 211,510 tourists, compared to 64,663 in the same period in 2021, which represents a negative difference of 146,847 passengers.
In that month of 2019, and in all those of the year, the superiority of the British market was immensely superior to the rest of the countries, with a total of 121,462 tourists from the United Kingdom in the month of July two years ago. Such is the difference that the next tourist-sending country, which was Ireland, generated a total of 29,777 passengers.
The improvement of international movement is being much slower than that of national and inter-island, which is precisely what has generated that in the month of July the Lanzarote airport housed 75% more passengers than in the same period in 2020.
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