The Canary Islands were present for the first time at this exhibition, held last weekend in Houten (Netherlands), with the purpose of promoting the archipelago as a diving destination at one of the most important diving fairs in Europe. The meeting brings together amateur and professional divers, underwater photographers, freedivers, videographers, as well as specialised media and platforms that promote this activity.
Visitors come especially to this fair to book their holidays, making it an excellent opportunity to position the Canary Islands as a diving destination. These tourists usually travel more than twice a year with the sole purpose of practising underwater activities and, in particular, the Dutch market is a market with great potential given the high number of divers and the volume of dives they do each year.
Taking into account that every year around 10,000 divers attend this exhibition, and that approximately 35% of them take the opportunity to book two or more diving trips, the presence of the Canary Islands allows them to get to know the marine environment and the offer of the different islands so that they decide to visit them and enjoy one of the best places in Europe for scuba diving.
As informs the Tourism Board of the Canary Islands, 243,455 tourists visited the Canary Islands whose motivation was scuba diving, leaving a turnover of 308 million euros. The Netherlands ranks sixth in the ranking of markets whose travellers choose the archipelago for diving. Specifically, in 2021, 11,578 tourists came to the Canary Islands from this country to go scuba diving. Within this ranking, Germany occupies first place, followed by the national market, France, the United Kingdom and Poland.
