The public company Turismo de Islas Canarias and the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands are launching various actions to attract "silver plus" tourism, people over 55 years of age who enjoy long-stay vacations. These actions were presented at the "Silver Tourism Forum 2022" by the Minister Yaiza Castilla.
The meeting was attended by José Rodríguez, CEO of Sercotel Hotel Group; Juan Miguel Morales, general manager of vacations at Ávoris Corporación Empresarial of the Barceló group; and Manuel Domínguez, head of Operations at Viajes El Corte Inglés + Logitravel.
Castilla recalled that “the senior economy accounts for 25% of GDP in Europe and more than 45% of world consumption, which is why experts define it as a new economic engine.” Furthermore, it becomes “an opportunity for economic and social development that the Canary Islands cannot miss, especially because it is a segment with high travel consumption.”
With the strategy under the concept "Take a life break in the best climate of the world", already positioning itself in the Spanish market, "where since December we have been developing a very capillary action that will reach all the provinces of the country to place the islands as the ideal long-stay destination for these travelers," adds the Minister.
For 2022, Castilla announced that Turismo de Canarias has carried out a micro-segmentation exercise within the "silver plus" category and is working on the design of a battery of tactical actions for each audience, divided into patanegras, vividores and accionistas.
The patanegras are people who come to the Canary Islands on vacation regularly, but without staying for a long time. “It is the segment with the most potential and from which we can obtain more results in the short term,” the Minister assured. For them, content will be created for the organization and facilitation of the trip, such as events, local communities of foreigners or local life on the islands, among others. In addition, actions will be developed with prescribers to reduce fear in the face of the vital change of long stays.
In the case of the vividores, those who already make long stays, but not in the Canary Islands, “we are going to make a place in their minds, positioning ourselves as an attractive option for them, offering a value proposition focused on our competitive advantage, the good climate,” added Castilla. To achieve this goal, a study will be carried out of the competitors and the attributes that these tourists value most, and a vacation tourism campaign will be launched focused in the first phase on the Spanish market.
Finally, the accionistas are people who have come to the Canary Islands one or more times to enjoy a long stay and “whom we are going to retain even more by improving their experience,” the Minister asserted. The specific actions that will be developed with them will range from studying their behavior to understand their needs to carrying out awareness actions for the regional tourism sector on the importance of developing a specific offer for these visitors.
"Silver" Tourism in the Archipelago
In 2019, the arrival of senior tourists to the archipelago represented 4,514,000 people, 34% of the total number of visitors. In addition, this tourist is characterized by higher spending, since in 2019 it generated 5,360 million euros in turnover, 35.52% of the total turnover of tourism in the Canary Islands.
With the new strategy, the aim is to improve the figures for "silver plus" or long-stay tourists. In 2019, 131,600 visitors belonging to this segment arrived, whose average stay was 49.58 nights and their annual turnover was 383 million euros.
The objective is that in the medium term the number of these tourists in the Canary Islands will be 200,000 per year, that is, an increase of around 50%. With the collaboration of the private sector, in the development of a product according to the "silver plus", it is intended to extend their average stay and increase their annual turnover, which would go from 383 million euros to 770 million euros.
