The Canary Islands expects to close 2022 "with just over 14 million tourists, around 6% less than in 2019, but with a turnover of more, above 17,000 million euros, as a result of higher average spending", said the Minister of Tourism, Yaiza Castilla this Monday at the meeting "The tourism we want", organized by the newspapers La Provincia and El Día.
At the level of connectivity, the coming months and until the end of March, figures will be recorded "well above pre-covid, which demonstrates the commitment that airlines have been maintaining to the Canary Islands, with almost 11 million seats from April to this month of October (9.5% more) and 9.4 million seats offered from November to next March (30.7% more)".
From the premise that "uncertainty is not going to disappear", the Ministry pursues a tourism that is resilient to changes, situations and crisis situations, which requires deepening its diversification, both in terms of issuing markets (such as those of France or Italy, which grow this year by 25%), as well as types of clients (older and remote workers, niches to whose promotion an unprecedented investment has been allocated this year).
Regarding this segment, also known as digital nomads, Yaiza Castilla has celebrated that "the Canary Islands has consolidated, in record time, a leading position in Europe, placing itself in the 'top ten' of destinations for this type of visitors".
The 35,000 digital nomads who arrived in the Canary Islands between January and June spend almost three times as much
"Only in the first half of 2022, we have received more than 35,000 people who come to combine leisure and work and who have an average expenditure almost three times higher than the expenditure made by the conventional vacation tourist. In addition, a third of the clients are already couples or even families, when the previous trend was that 85% came alone. The average age is also increasing", detailed the counselor, who stated that this new client profile "is interesting as a diversification tool.
The same happens with the 'silver plus' tourist (over 55 years of age) for long stays. We are committed to becoming a refuge destination this winter season for residents of central and northern Europe who want to escape from the low temperatures and possible restrictions on heating and well-being that they may suffer as a result of the invasion of Ukraine", she said.
The second major objective of the new destination strategy is to achieve "a Canarian tourism more committed to reducing carbon emissions linked to its activity and, in general, with environmental sustainability in a more global conception".
To this challenge, is added the need to have "a Canarian tourism that enhances its capacity to drive the rest of the economic activity of the islands in terms of wealth generation, employment and social welfare, extending its value chain to the rest of the sectors and enhancing its capacity for innovation in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda", concluded the counselor.
