While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict captures much of the world’s attention, it’s essential to consider the impact of other ongoing conflicts on the economy of the Canary Islands. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which commenced on February 24, 2022, has not only resulted in death and destruction spanning over 600 days but has also paralyzed air travel connections between Russia and the EU. The EU imposed a ban on Russian airlines from accessing EU airports and flying over EU airspace, hindering the recovery of tourism from Russia to the Canary Islands after the significant impact of COVID-19 in 2020, 2021, and part of 2022.
However, Russian tourism is gradually reappearing, primarily through transit airports in other countries. This information has been confirmed by the regional tourism department and the Tenerife Cabildo, as reported by DIARIO DE AVISOS.
At the regional level, the recovery is still modest but noticeable. In the first quarter of this year, there were a total of 2,875 tourists from Russia. Although this number falls far short of the 6,890 Russian tourists in the entirety of 2022, it’s important to note that in the first two months of that year, the invasion had not yet been confirmed, and EU-Russia relations were different.
These figures are still a significant distance from the 75,026 tourists who visited the Islands in 2018 or the 72,296 in 2019. Nevertheless, they signal the beginning of a recovery, albeit to a much lesser extent. Tenerife, in particular, experienced a 21.7% increase in August compared to the same month in 2022, although this is still far from the numbers in 2020, when COVID-19 caused unprecedented global disruptions.
In 2021, waves of the virus led to a decline in Russian visits to 2,183, but the numbers for 2023 indicate a potential nearly threefold increase from that figure.
According to Tourism Ministry records, Russian visitors spent an average of €2,152 per trip in 2018, €1,711 in 2019, and €1,484 in 2020. Their average stay decreased from 15.2 days in 2018 to 13.9 in 2019 and 11.4 in the first year of COVID-19. The average daily expenditure was €159.81 in 2018, €150.48 in 2019, and €153.40 in 2020, with total expenditures of €161 million, €124 million, and €26 million, respectively.
TENERIFE, THE FAVOURITE ISLAND FOR RUSSIAN TOURISTS
Tenerife has always been the preferred destination for Russian tourists. In 2019, 82% of the 72,296 visitors to the archipelago chose Tenerife, with 59,162 Russians selecting the island of Teide, particularly its southern hotels. In contrast, 15% chose Gran Canaria (10,790 visitors), 2% opted for Lanzarote (1,726), and a mere 271 chose La Palma.
Data from Istac for 2023 indicates that Tenerife continues to be the favored choice. In August alone, the island saw 615 Russian visitors, 187 more than in the same month the previous year, representing a 21.7% increase. In cumulative terms, the increase stands at 21.7%, a significant step towards recovery compared to the 84.5% reduction compared to 2019.
