The traffic of passengers to La Graciosa increased by 9% in the first quarter compared to last year, according to the Data Center of Lanzarote based on figures published by the General Directorate of Ports of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport of the Canary Islands.
The number of visitors who have disembarked on the island in the first three months of the year amounts to 52,893 disembarkations in Caleta de Sebo. Meanwhile, the number of trips from or to the eighth island once again far exceeds 100,000 people between January and March of this year. Specifically, there were 114,109 trips, while last year 103,798 were recorded.
Throughout 2023, the port of Caleta de Sebo registered 272,416 boardings from the two regular ferry lines that operate on the island and 273,404 disembarkations. Or what is the same, 545,820 travelers (counting round trips). To which must be added the 55,474 passengers who arrived in recreational boats.
The number of people who visit La Graciosa has not stopped increasing in recent years and in 2023 it exceeded 600,000 trips for the first time. Specifically, there were 601,232 round trips departing from or arriving at Caleta de Sebo.
Ten years earlier, in 2013, the number of travelers who visited the eighth island amounted to 286,292 trips, which represents an increase in a decade of more than 100%, therefore the figures have more than doubled.
With data from 2022, when the number of journeys to or from La Graciosa amounted to 558,634 people, a report from the El Sol de La Graciosa Energy Community already warned that the increase in arrivals "overwhelms" in a "systematic" way the capacity that the eighth island has to respond to the demand for energy and water, waste and sewage management or land mobility within it.
The El Sol de La Graciosa Energy Community is part of the European initiative Clean Energy for EU Island to decarbonize the islands of the European Union.