The Canary Islands already exceed the air capacity they had before the pandemic in 2022 thanks, above all, to the strong growth of new tourist-generating markets.
A growth to which the diversification of markets has decisively contributed, with a strong boost from countries different from the traditional ones, among which the very positive evolution of Holland, France, Italy, Portugal and Austria stands out. Together, these markets show an increase of 24.5% in connectivity, a high percentage that "generates quite a lot of satisfaction for us because, without giving up our share in traditional issuing countries, it is clear proof that the incentives for companies and the promotion initiatives launched by Turismo de Canarias and the sector are working", said the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla, in the Parliament of the Canary Islands.
The Minister also recalled that the air capacity of the United Kingdom, the main tourist-generating market for the Canary Islands, will continue to grow, as confirmed by major airlines. The offer of British places to the islands for the period between April and next October is now 6.5% above those marketed in the summer of 2019.
The forecasts of the Canarian executive point to the fact that the year could close with a volume very close to 15 million tourists "if no new misfortunes occur".
The Minister explained that this summer could be a turning point for the destination, as potential tourists have money they have saved during the pandemic and want to spend it in the place they choose to enjoy their holidays. "The air capacity to the Canary Islands will be accompanied by a strong increase in demand from Europeans, after two years of ups and downs and setbacks that have abruptly stopped travel outside their borders. This summer could be the 'revenge' and they have money to spend," said the Minister, who added that "getting them to come to the islands would already be squaring the circle and things have to get very ugly again for that not to happen".
Although the Minister recalled that summer is not the peak season for the Canary Islands, she also drew attention to the great progress in positioning the islands as a safe and interesting holiday destination for many visitors who had never been to the islands before. In fact, the percentage of tourists who visited the archipelago in 2021 for the first time in their lives increased from 25% to 34%.
"With these data, we can conclude that the balance of risks for this year shows a very positive balance and we foresee that the long-awaited recovery of the travel market will definitely take place and we will return to pre-pandemic figures", explained the Minister in Parliament, where she stressed that the air seats scheduled for 2022 to date are currently growing by 2.2% compared to 2019, with 18.1 million seats already scheduled to the islands.
In any case, Castilla was cautious in recalling that "the main change caused by the pandemic is the greater delay in bookings, which tend to be more last minute, to which airlines also respond by delaying adjustments in schedules, so we will have to closely monitor the changes that occur in the coming months".
The Minister was pleased that in recent weeks all the revisions in the schedule to the archipelago have been upwards. For the summer season, which runs between April and October, there are 10,583,000 air seats scheduled to the islands, i.e. 615,000 more than in the summer of 2019 (+6.2%).
All the islands are increasing their air capacity forecasts for this summer and it is precisely La Palma that is recovering the most connectivity, with 14.5% more. "All that is missing is for this growth to be accompanied by a rebound in demand, for which we are implementing a series of major actions, such as three promotional campaigns, the La Palma Tourist Voucher and the call for aid to specific connectivity for the Isla Bonita", said Castilla.
With these positive forecasts, the Minister stated that, despite all the difficulties, a good job has been done in the Canary Islands. "We have been able to take advantage of windows of opportunity that have opened up to us to attract new tourist segments, such as remote workers, silver plus or professional sports tourism, as well as encouraging the arrival of new visitors from other less traditional markets in the Canary Islands, such as France, Italy or the Czech Republic, as well as from new countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia", concluded Castilla.
