Moreover, last year’s figure is 36.8% above 2020 records (+2,535 million euros versus 2019), as reported by the Government of the Canary Islands following the latest Economic Impact Study of Tourism Impactur Canarias 2021, which is jointly produced by Canary Islands Tourism Board and Exceltur.
Tourism Ministry has highlighted that these figures confirm the resilience of tourism in the Canary Islands despite the sixth wave of the pandemic in Europe at the end of the year and the eruption of the volcano of La Palma in September 2021, in addition to the positive response of the demand as soon as the restrictions on mobility were relaxed.
In fact, in the Canary Islands, the reactivation of economic activity linked to tourism was somewhat above the average estimated for Spain for 2021 by Exceltur (58% of 2019 levels).
Tourism activity in the islands experienced a notable recovery from July and August, with a recovery of 72% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2019, and 95% in the last quarter of the year and the start of the winter season 2021-2022.
Likewise, Tourism Ministry has indicated that this performance came from the peninsular, French, Belgian and Italian markets, together with the good response from the German market.
The Canary Islands will close the year with an improvement in turnover
The Minister for Tourism, Industry and Trade of the Canary Islands Government, Yaiza Castilla, explained that the progressive improvement has been maintained in 2022, “especially from the second quarter of the year, so we can already say that the islands will close the year with a decrease of around 4% in visitor numbers, but with an improvement in turnover, estimated at around 19,000 million euros, 2,000 million more than in 2019, according to calculations made by the Department of Tourism Intelligence, Planning and Connectivity of Tourism of the Canary Islands.
Given the recovery of the sector, the tourism autority also warns that “it is time to resume the roadmap to move towards a tourism model in balance with socio-environmental sustainability and with the greatest return and prosperity for Canarian citizens”.
