The Cabildo and Tourism Lanzarote trust that the British market, which represents almost 50% of the total influx of tourists to the island, will continue to show "good behavior" with Lanzarote in 2020 since "although the uncertainty generated by the possible impact of a hard Brexit at the end of next January should not be minimized, according to the meetings held with the main operators, the United Kingdom does not present structural symptoms of tourist weakness".
This was one of the main conclusions that were announced this Monday during the press conference offered by the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo, the Councilor for Tourism Promotion, Ángel Vázquez, and the CEO of the Society for the Exterior Promotion of Lanzarote (SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote), Héctor Fernández, in which they gave an account of the work balance carried out by the Lanzarote delegation that traveled to London to attend the World Travel Market 2019, which took place between November 4 and 6.
In this regard, María Dolores Corujo stated that sustainability and technology have a growing importance in the market. "We were able to clearly verify that sustainability and technological innovation are two factors that take on their own importance and are growing demands of tourism worldwide." "In this sense, our message and our objective is clear: Lanzarote is a quality destination, which prioritizes sustainability, culture and what César Manrique knew how to turn into art: the traditional relationship of the human being with their environment", she added.
"Lanzarote is a unique and singular place in the world, so in terms of destination strategy we are going to bet clearly and emphatically on putting the accent on the differentiating and exclusive aspects that make up our hallmark, such as sustainability, the binomial between art and nature, the imprint of our universal artist, the Centers of Art, Culture and Tourism or the attributes of the island as a Geopark", the president stressed.
For his part, Ángel Vázquez also highlighted that "parallel to improving connectivity, the objective is also focused on diversifying alternative markets to the British one and on continuing with the development, consolidation and promotion of the variety of tourist experiences and products, among which the enogastronomic product stands out, with Saborea Lanzarote at the forefront; the sports product, under the umbrella of European Sports Destination; Lanzarote Music Festivals; Lanzarote Film Commission or MICE (Events and Congresses), among others". "The challenge is to continue improving the spending indicators at the destination that have been gradually increasing." "Lanzarote - the councilor stated - is a mature and consolidated destination that must continue to attract the influx of tourists, while prioritizing quality", he pointed out.
British tourism
Both leaders, who thanked and recognized the work developed by the Tourism Lanzarote team led by its CEO, Héctor Fernández, pointed out the importance for the island of British tourism and did not hesitate to highlight the "great demand" and "loyalty" that this market continues to show for the island of volcanoes. And it is that, according to the institution, of the 2,880,051 tourists who visited Lanzarote in 2018, 47.3% (a total of 1,368,155) came from the United Kingdom, compared to 11.9% from Germany, 9.6% from Ireland, 9% from the rest of Spain and 5% from France. (In the Canary Islands, the British market represented 31.7% last year, Germany 20.4%, Ireland 3.4%, peninsular tourism 11.5% and France 3.8%).
With regard to 2019, between the months of January and September the island counted a total of 2,205,821 tourists - 2.3% more than those registered in the same period last year - of which 1,065,692 came from the British market, which represents an accumulated increase in the first nine months of 2019 of 4.6%, despite the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook in September.
Among the meetings carried out by Turismo Lanzarote during the past WTM, the one held with Jet2 stood out, which has become the main partner (collaborating partner) of the island's promotion entity in the United Kingdom and the "most dynamic tourist actor in Europe currently", said the councilor, who highlighted "the important commitment" that this operator is making "for Lanzarote, reinforced after the collapse of Thomas Cook".
In this regard, it has been pointed out that Jet2 has increased the number of places with the island by 37%, thus absorbing practically 50% of the places that the extinct British operator had, which can be increased even more with its "foreseeable upward revision after the acquisition of the slots (landing and take-off rights) belonging to Thomas Cook in Stansted, Birmingham and Manchester", informed Ángel Vázquez.
Concern for the German and Nordic markets
Among the conclusions of the assessment of attendance at the WTM, it has been pointed out that more concern is generated on the contrary by the German and Nordic markets, "where different variables slow down the issuing capacity; in any case, the refloating of Thomas Cook Scandinavia is obviously good news".
"Better prospects are presented by France, the Peninsula, Italy or the emerging market of Portugal, issuing countries that estimate upward forecasts in the coming seasons, according to the information received in the conversations held with the main airlines. These are markets related to our destination and with a better behavior in tourist spending", it has been pointed out.
Meetings
Among the meetings, the one held with easyJet has also been highlighted, an airline with which Turismo Lanzarote aims to sign a multi-year agreement within a collaborative framework that allows optimizing the relationship and connection with the destination. Of "growing importance for the island", easyJet currently maintains 15 routes from 6 countries, and presents "very good forecasts for 2020 with the opening of 2 or 3 routes from important and strategic markets for Lanzarote", said Héctor Fernández.
In other meetings held with prominent airlines, it was pointed out that the Lanzarote delegation was able to verify that "the crisis of the delay in the reception of the B737 Max model aircraft is seriously affecting companies as important as Ryanair, Norwegian, TUI or Travel Service, although the normalization in deliveries, scheduled for March 2020, will be an important factor in recovering connectivity".
In this sense, TUI announced at the WTM its intention to add two million places in its main destinations, among which will be 25,000 new places with Lanzarote for the summer of 2020, which represents an increase of 17%, an increase that has not been possible to carry out this winter due to the aforementioned problems in the reception of 737 Max aircraft from Boeing. TUI, the third largest provider of places from the United Kingdom, is a stable partner of Turismo Lanzarote "with whom the island's promotion entity maintains conversations to improve the marketing agreement based on the concretion of its commitment to the island".
As for Ryanair, the first company in Lanzarote in terms of places and routes and the second largest provider of places from the United Kingdom, which will close its base in Lanzarote from January, "is currently in a phase of withdrawal due to the blocking of the delivery of the B737 Max, which has led it to cancel the routes it maintained with Leeds and Newcastle", it has been indicated. However, Turismo Lanzarote has announced "it will maintain the marketing and collaboration agreements with this airline, with which it has arranged a new meeting in January in Dublin, hoping to recover places and routes with the island next winter".
Finally, at the press conference it was also stated that "at the air level, there are clear movements of business concentration (in relation to the acquisition of Air Europa by Iberia) that will affect the connectivity of tourist areas, including the Canary Islands".
