The arrival of passengers at the port of Arrecife has been reduced by half in the month of May, with only 20,815 passengers compared to 43,060 in April, according to figures from the Port Authority of Las Palmas, collected by the Lanzarote Data Center.
As usual, in the fifth month of the year the figures tend to drop, marked by a period of limbo between the Easter and summer holidays, where there is a greater influx of passengers.
Specifically, in May 20,815 travelers arrived, 12,100 from cruises and 8,715 from other types of boats. Although the figures for the previous months have still not recovered from the pandemic, with numbers practically halved, the May figure has been the most similar to the same month in 2019, when 27,324 passengers were registered.
However, the strongest months in terms of traveler arrivals tend to be November and December, during the winter campaign, so the figures may take time to reach those of 2019.
In addition, the traffic of ships and their gross tonnage has also decreased in May, with 143 ships and 2,112,533 tons, compared to 162 and 3,659,495, respectively, in the previous month. Regarding freight traffic, this marks a figure of 126,940 tons, 27,000 less than in April.
Cruises suffer, but with expectations for the winter
For its part, the number of cruise passengers has also experienced a significant decrease in the fifth month of the year. Specifically, in May only 12,100 passengers arrived, 63% less than the previous month, when 32,705 disembarked.
However, if compared with the figures of last year, this increases by 34.3%, since in May 2021 9,008 cruise passengers were registered. The accumulated also increases, with 131,976 passengers from January to May, 328.3% more than in 2021, when the accumulated was 30,814, due to the restrictions due to the pandemic.
In any case, the cruise sector expects to recover with the winter season, although the Port Authority of Las Palmas (APLP) does not rule out reaching figures close to those of 2019 in summer, with 90% of the fleet operating in Lanzarote.
A clear example of this is the reactivation of numerous routes with Lanzarote by well-known companies such as Norwegian, which will begin to connect with the island from November 21.
