The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, inaugurated this Monday the new Canary Islands Pavilion at the 43rd edition of the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, where he announced an improvement in the tourism forecasts for the archipelago, "which will close this year with almost 14.5 million tourists, thus recovering 96% of the demand we had before the pandemic."
The president remarked that this is in addition to a 10% increase in turnover, which this year will be close to 19,000 million euros, compared to 17,000 million in 2019, when more tourists arrived (15.1 million).
The London tourism fair is one of the most important in the world, where tour operators, hotels, airlines, technology and online travel services meet and covers a wide range of sectors within the travel and tourism industry.
The Canary Islands is attending the fair with a pavilion of 770 square meters, which stands out for its 16 large aerial cubes with a strong visual impact, which will function as huge showcases for the Canary Islands' tourist offer and where audiovisual images of the eight islands will be projected. This new pavilion reduces its carbon footprint by consuming 15% less electricity and reducing the volume of transport by 20%.
The Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Yaiza Castilla, explained that the Canary Islands is attending the WTM with the aim of consolidating its main market, the British one, which this year has recovered again compared to 2019. "It has grown by 3% in relation to the pre-pandemic year (2019), a trend that we hope will increase thanks to the high air connectivity that we will have this winter with the United Kingdom, with 600,000 more seats to the islands, up to 2.6 million seats, which represents an increase of 29%," said the Minister.
250 professionals from the islands belonging to 150 companies and institutions also participate in the fair, 26 of which will have their own space in the new space.
It is estimated that the fair has 5,000 exhibitors, and will attract 3,000 journalists and 50,000 visitors.
