The president of the Tourism Federation, Susana Pérez, analyzes the behavior of the different tourist markets of Lanzarote during the summer.
In an interview with Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, Pérez highlights the loyalty of the British market, reveals that peninsular tourism fell by 25% in July, and that Lanzarote is beginning to recover part of the German tourism it had lost.
- At the beginning of the summer we were talking about how the European Championship and the Olympic Games had influenced a lower occupancy in July, what is the balance of the summer currently?
Indeed, at the beginning of the summer high season, in July, those sporting events marked a lot of uncertainty and we did not reach 80% occupancy.
In the last fortnight there was an increase in last-minute bookings and at the close of our statistical data in 150 accommodations, it was possible to close with 85%, just a couple of points below last year.
- How are the different markets performing?
We can say that we have punctured and we are puncturing, not only in the month of July, but also seeing the accumulated in a very important market, the peninsular market.
Regarding the diversification of markets, we have a very important weight, and welcome, in the United Kingdom, a very loyal market, but in July we were surprised by a precipitous fall in the peninsular market, 25%, which in absolute numbers is almost 11,000 fewer tourists.
- What are the causes?
We have to sit down and analyze them. In Gran Canaria, the peninsular market has fallen by 10%, but not in Tenerife and Fuerteventura, which show positive data. So it can't just be the sporting events we were talking about.
We will analyze the prices of flights. In Gran Canaria and Tenerife there is a greater volume and supply of places and seats, which lowers prices. We are going to analyze it with our travel agencies in the Federation and of course with Turismo Lanzarote to see how the occupancy of the planes and the agreements with the airlines has gone.
In addition, in the accumulated from January to July, peninsular tourism has fallen by almost 14%. In the rest of the islands it is positive, except for La Palma, which lost 0.7% of peninsulars.
Between April and June, spending on accommodation fell by 4%, it was also negative in local transport, shopping and sports, while national and international transport rose by 20%.
- By the way, is the German market recovering?
Yes, in the accumulated we have positive data, although there are some months in negative, we have recovered about 12,500 German tourists.
- How has tourism as a whole behaved in spending and days of stay?
We see that the trend is to reduce the number of nights although there has been a growth in spending of 13% in July compared to last year.
However, we have to wait for the breakdown of the different spending concepts, because for example, between April and June spending in general terms grew by 4%, but in accommodation it fell by 4%, it was also negative in local transport, shopping and sports, while national and international transport rose by 20%.
