This summer, the island’s tourist areas are once again taken over by the Canary Islands and the peninsulars, who continue to be the majority among the clients of the establishments, while foreign visitors have not yet managed to unseat locals and nationals, although they are more visible. that a few months ago when the closure of borders and harsh restrictions made their presence almost non-existent.
A flow of clients that the businessmen of the tourist epicenter of Los Cristianos confirm has increased, especially in recent weeks, something they appreciate after the fateful summer of 2020, when uncertainty made many choose to spend the summer as close to home as possible , and after a fateful winter season, marked by the closures of the main tourist source markets.
“Above all we are working with local, peninsular and some foreign clients, but very little,” says Javier Chinea, a worker at the El Rincón del Marinero restaurant. “There are few Englishmen and there are young people who barely spend in restaurants,” he points out.
Chinea’s lament is supported by many other entrepreneurs in the Tenerife tourism sector, for whom the British visitor was their main client before the coronavirus shattered the systems managed by the tourism industry and who desperately await its arrival. In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, 2.1 million English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish tourists spent their holidays in Tenerife, representing just over 34% of total visitors. This year, until June, only 13,410 had visited the island, which gives an idea of the disaster it has caused the sector, as it was left without a market that spent 2,200 million euros per year, only in Tenerife.
British oxygen
That the Government of Boris Johnson has decided this week to keep all of Spain, including the Canary Islands, at the amber traffic light, – so tourists with the full vaccination schedule who visit the Archipelago and return to the United Kingdom should not spend ten days quarantine – has given a break to the sector in the Islands, but not even the easing of the restrictions in his country seems to be encouraging the British to fly to the Canary Islands too much.
Yes, there is a greater presence of tourists of other nationalities. Germans, Belgians, French and even Poles have been seen more this year in the tourist areas of Tenerife, but as a whole they cannot compensate for the loss caused by the reluctance of British tourists. In the first six months of this year, 225,262 foreign tourists arrived in Tenerife, mostly French and German. A figure that cannot be compared with the more than one million Britons staying in Tenerife’s hotel establishments until June 2019.
The truth is that the client that the hotels in Tenerife have attended the most throughout this year is precisely the local guest. 160,000 have stayed in the first six months in the open establishments, many attracted by the important offers that have been made available to residents with the intention of attracting customers especially on weekends, something that has helped offset the losses.
In addition to local clients, 122,000 peninsular residents stayed in hotels in Tenerife in the same period, being the second largest group.
A trend that seems to continue this summer despite the desire of the sector to recover international tourists. Even so, businessmen in the sector maintain that this summer is being better than Year I of the pandemic. A greater number of customers have encouraged the vast majority of restaurants and shops in the tourist areas to open up and in the center of Los Cristianos it is already difficult to see a local with the blind still down. Of course, what could be seen were the “For sale” or “Transfer” signs in various businesses that were still open, but to which the crisis has not given a truce. In the case of hotels, and according to figures recently provided by the Tenerife Hotel Association, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro (Ashotel), four out of ten hotels are still closed.
The largest number of visitors was noted in the streets of this emblematic tourist area whose appearance has nothing to do with what could be seen during the start of last winter season, the most important for the industry in the Canary Islands, than last year it closed with dramatic figures.
“We are making the same mistakes as last year,” maintains Jesús Molina, owner of Excursions Jesús. “We open soon, lowering restrictions and the incidence has risen again”, assesses this businessman with more than 25 years of experience, for whom the most important thing is to save the winter season, although he is convinced that “it will be good” as long as “Things are done well.”
Despite the higher volume of visitors in tourist areas, businessmen indicate that this increase is not being equally noticeable in their accounts.
“There is not that economic joy that was predicted,” says José Gaspar, head of the El Ventorrillo restaurant. The fifth wave has squandered many of the good prospects that had been achieved after the advance of vaccination and visitors continue to watch prices a lot and throw themselves into offers, since uncertainty still makes the majority be cautious when it comes to spend.
The same perception is held by Daniel Castañeda, administrator of Osoro Canarias, a store specializing in the sale of tobacco and liquors in the heart of the tourist center. “Either there is not as much saved as it is said or people are still afraid to spend money for what may happen,” he exposes.
More restoration
For Safau Matta, who runs the Cuore clothing store in Los Cristianos, which is very focused on international tourists, commerce is recovering worse from this crisis than other businesses such as restaurants, precisely due to the limitation of spending among tourists. “They will always go to eat but what is to buy … they resist more,” he values.
The objective of many businesses in the south of the island this second atypical summer will be to resist until the arrival of the winter season. When they wait for the definitive reactivation to take place once and for all. For this, it is not only necessary for vaccination to advance until reaching percentages that protect most of the population, but also to dispel the uncertainty that still keeps many of the potential clients of the main industry of the Archipelago at home.
“We do not make forecasts, we work day by day”
Javier Chinea, an employee of the El Rincón del Marinero restaurant in Los Cristianos, acknowledges that with the current situation it is very difficult to make long-term forecasts. “We work day by day with enthusiasm, but nothing more,” he says, after the coronavirus and the different waves of the pandemic have made it impossible to forecast how the activity of next month will turn out. The business resists the onslaught of the crisis very well thanks to the local customer and its offer based on fresh zero kilometer fish. “Since we opened we have worked with clients from here and they have not failed us,” he says. Especially last summer when the usual diners were joined by “many people who could not go out and stayed here to spend the summer.” He insists that the previous summer campaign “worked very well because people really wanted to go out and consume.” This is being somewhat weaker for this restaurant, which also receives national and international tourists.
“Sales have increased by 50%”
Osoro Canarias, a store specializing in the sale of tobacco, liquors and other products, begins to notice an improvement in its sales. Its administrator, Daniel Castañeda, points out that the business volume has increased by 50% compared to last year. The place, located in a central avenue of Los Cristianos, has perceived less lack of customers, but there has been a lower level of spending. “People who used to buy three now take one and compare the prices a lot,” says the person in charge, so he insists that there is still a lot of prudence when it comes to taking money out of your pocket, in case the pandemic still has the odd surprise that once again destabilizes the economy.
“We open in the middle of a pandemic and we have not stopped working”
José Gaspar has been one of the few brave people who, in the midst of the pandemic, has dared to open a business in a tourist area, his restaurant El Ventorrillo, although he is grateful that “we have not stopped working.” Last year, thanks to the canaries, a client who this summer have missed something, since many have escaped off the island. “In 2020 we serve many people from the North who had never vacationed in the south of the island,” he says. However, their lack has been compensated by peninsular and some foreigners. “This summer is being better, but the tourist watches the prices a lot to make profitable”, he values. Gaspar also emphasizes that more and more visitors seek quality and allow themselves to be recommended by the different platforms that exist on the internet. “You no longer sit on the first terrace you see, look, compare and then decide,” he explains. Something that he assures has benefited them in their business by offering “typical Canarian food adapted to the type of tourist who is now arriving on the island.”
“Since June an improvement has been noticed”
Safau Matta has been running Cuore for three years, a small clothing store in the center of Los Cristianos. He never thought when starting his business that he would have to face a crisis like the one that has attracted the coronavirus, but he is already beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. “Since the beginning of the summer, we have seen more movement, we are still very far from the situation that existed before the pandemic, but now we can have more hope,” he says. Even so, he does think that businesses will have a bit more difficult in this race for recovery, since he points out that tourists will prioritize spending on restaurants and accommodation and will reduce the purchase of clothing and accessories.
“Now is when I have been able to remove my staff from ERTE”
“I have had all my staff in ERTE since March of last year and it is now when I have been able to start taking them out.” This is how Jesús Molina, businessman and owner of Excursions Jesús, explains that the incipient reactivation of tourism is already allowing the return of many workers who have not been able to carry out their work for more than a year due to the paralysis of the sector. So far, the clients he serves the most are “French, Belgian, Spanish and Italian”, although he misses the English who are yet to arrive. While trying to capture the attention of everyone who passes his establishment, Jesús strives to sell one of the 250 excursions he offers in his business. “What comes out the most are catamarans, jet skis and of course, the excursion to La Gomera,” he says. This businessman has all his hopes on the winter season which he predicts will be “very good”, as there is an “incredible desire to travel and enjoy”