Lanzarote's presence at the 'World Travel Market' has ended with a "very positive" assessment, Oswaldo Betancort commented this Monday morning. The fair was held in London between November 7 and 9.
The President of the Cabildo offered a press conference, accompanied by the CEO of the 'Sociedad de Promoción Exterior de Lanzarote' (SPEL) Turismo Lanzarote, Héctor Fernández, in which he highlighted the meetings held with various tour operators and airlines to improve connectivity with the island, the promotion of Lanzarote focused on "sustainability" and the "presentation of the 'Premium' project" which seeks a global qualification of the destination and its positioning strategy, seeking new markets in countries such as USA, Canada or South Korea.
"British tourism is consolidated as our largest tourist market, both in number of passengers and in spending at the destination. In London we have verified the confidence they continue to have in us, despite some unfortunate messages that were given last year about the quality of British visitors," said Oswaldo Betancort.
For his part, the SPEL councillor, Héctor Fernández, pointed out that "the United Kingdom is a country committed to climate change, hosting the summit and agreements of Glasgow in terms of decarbonisation, thus becoming a receptive market to the efforts that Lanzarote undertakes in terms of sustainability".
Despite the geopolitical and economic uncertainties worldwide, the year 2024 at the tourist level presents a "positive outlook for the Canary Islands and Lanzarote", both from the United Kingdom and from other markets, with the "stability of the British market being the best ally" for any destination.
Betancort thanked the "great work done by the technicians and representatives of 'SPEL'" and for the collaboration that the island's town councils carried out in the joint promotion of the Lanzarote destination.
A qualified and sustainable destination
Lanzarote attended the 'WTM' with the aim of "repositioning" itself as a qualified and sustainable destination, focused on the "recovery of values" such as the Manrique accent, nature, the sea and fishing culture, in addition to enogastronomy and sport, something that was received satisfactorily by the main interlocutors of the tourist market.
Lanzarote will launch, through 'The Travel Foundation', a pilot project of 'Regenerative Tourism', amplifying the promotion in the United Kingdom as a "sustainable destination" and focusing on the "fight against plastic" and "climate change". The 'Travel Foundation' is a non-governmental entity founded in 2003 with the main objective of working with the tourism industry to achieve a more socially and environmentally sustainable future for tourist destinations.
During the development of the fair, the Lanzarote tourist delegation held meetings with the main British tour operators, and with those responsible for the flag airline 'British Airways' with the aim and objective of increasing from seven to ten weekly flights with the César Manrique airport for the winter season of 2024-2025.
Similarly, contacts were maintained with the directors of 'AirPortugal', which does not currently fly to the island, to ensure that the flagship company of the Portuguese country can start operations during 2025 with Lanzarote depending on its fleet expansion project.
Air connectivity with the United Kingdom, whose volume of passengers, until September of this year, has grown in the islands by 15% compared to the same period of 2022, with 4.2 million seats compared to 3.6 million in the previous year.
The favorite destination of the British is Spain, with the Canary Islands being the autonomous community that occupies the first place as a receiver of visitors from that country, far ahead of the rest. One in three tourists who visit the Canary Islands is British, with Lanzarote being the second chosen destination, after Tenerife.
