In January 2024, Lanzarote received more than 271,000 tourists. In other words, the island of volcanoes, with 156,000 registered inhabitants, almost doubled its population in the first month of the year alone. After that, in February, the island's hotels had a great August, with 90% occupancy and raising turnover to an average of 130 euros per night.
Overtourism is the phenomenon of tourist overcrowding suffered by some holiday destinations after the excessive arrival of travelers to a certain space. Regarding this, the report of Tourism Sustainability in the Canary Islands, regarding the year 2023, prepared by a research team from the University of La Laguna (ULL) and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), within the Tourism Observatory of the Canary Islands, concludes that "there is no general problem of congestion and overtourism" in the Canary Islands, but there are "relevant problems" related to the arrival of tourists to the islands.
Thus, it highlights, for example, the "traffic congestion" in natural spaces or problems in "housing availability" around tourist areas. The research attributes these difficulties to "a management deficit" on the part of public administrations and political forces to deal with the negative effects of the concentration of tourists in certain points of the islands.
Until now, these negative impacts were reduced by the "specialization of uses", which differentiate the tourist areas of the Canary Islands from the residential ones, and by the "uniform" arrival of tourists throughout the year. However, hotel and non-hotel occupancy (apartments) has been joined by the rise of holiday homes outside tourist areas.
In addition, nuclei such as the tourist section between Matagorda and Los Pocilllos concentrate a disproportion between residents and tourist places. For example, there are less than one resident for every ten places in hotels, apartments or holiday homes.
Meanwhile, in the case of the coast of Costa Teguise, hotel places double the resident population, and adding the beds in holiday homes or places in tourist apartments, they almost quadruple them.
Despite this, the tourists surveyed by the Tourism Observatory of the Canary Islands in 2022, a year in which nearly 17 million overnight stays were reached in Lanzarote alone, rated with a high mark the tolerance of the conejera population towards tourism and with a 6.67 the importance of overcrowding in the tourist areas of the island.
Already in 2024, Lanzarote and the Canary Islands have recovered the data of passenger and tourist arrivals after the coronavirus pandemic, which led the islands to a tourist zero. It also foresees that occupancy and arrival records will be reached throughout the year.
Currently, Lanzarote has 107 accommodation places per square kilometer, the highest capacity in the Canary Islands and well above the regional average (73).
