Tenerife attends a new edition of the International Tourism Fair (Fitur) with its best figures for reservations in winter and air seats for the summer season. Ifema in Madrid hosts this annual showcase for the sector from this Wednesday the 18th to Sunday the 22nd. There are a total of 4.2 million regular seats in the winter season and a forecast capacity for next summer of 5,362,997 seats, 8% more than in 2019; that is, an increase of almost 400,000 places. The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, values these figures and highlights “the leadership of Tenerife, which has established itself as the first destination for Canary Islands, by concentrating 38 percent of the passengers of the archipelago ». The Island also has 41 percent of the market share of national travelers.
connectivity.
Tenerife currently connects with 29 markets through 141 air routes operated by 63 companies. Martín advances that “in 2022 the Island managed to recover 98 percent of foreign air traffic and 96 percent of the peninsular, “with a total of 8.1 million passengers.”
The president values ”the effort made in recent years to improve the connectivity of the destination.” This has meant recovering and incorporating new markets, in addition to maintaining the work to promote the arrival of more quality tourism that generates a greater economic impact on the Island. In this sense, it is worth noting the growth of tourism in markets such as the French, the North American , Italian or Baltic countries. Pedro Martín recalls that “we have recovered more than ten tourist destinations that did not fly with Tenerife and consolidated routes with flag companies, such as Lufthansa, British Airways or TAP Portugal”.
Referrer.
The Istac figures as of November 2022 indicate that Tenerife registered a total of 4,334,225 tourists in hotels and apartments. The figure, in the absence of knowing the official data at the end of the year, suggests amounts similar to those registered in 2019, the last year of normality before the pandemic. Martín stresses that then “the current socioeconomic conditions with a war in Ukraine and inflation that affects the economies of all of Europe, including our main clients,” did not exist.
The president links these results to the job that is generated on the Island, where the unemployment figures are the lowest in the last 14 years and the employed population is in figures that had not been registered before.
Diversity.
The insular director of Tourism, Laura Castro, explains that Tenerife is presented at Fitur with several objectives. Among them, continue with the diversification of the destination, strengthen digital and sustainable tourism development, promote the national market and have direct dialogue with the main operators in the sector. Regarding the national market, Castro points out that there are 2,591,594 seats contracted, 4,018 seats more than in 2019. “One of our main tasks this year at Fitur,” he explains, is to consolidate the recovery of the national market, the second most important, for which is why we have scheduled an intensive agenda of work meetings with the main tour operators”.
Promotion.
The CEO of Tenerife Tourism, David Pérez, stresses the average spending per tourist on the Island, which has increased by 21.4% compared to 2019, which is 4 points more than the average for the Canary Islands. Pérez understands that this “is the result of the intense promotion of the attributes and strengths of the destination.” He adds that different profiles are attracted “based on this multi-experience offer” and “it contributes to strengthening the local tourist fabric and favors a fairer distribution of wealth”, since “those who visit us increasingly opt for the enormous offer of activities that our destination offers”.
meetings.
The Tenerife delegation will hold more than twenty meetings with international and national tour operators, airlines and tour operators such as TAP Portugal, Vueling, United Airlines, Air Europa, Iberia Express, Jet2, Swiss, Volotea, Viasale, or Edelweiss-Zurich. In addition, meetings will be held with the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies (CEAV), the CEAV of Andalusia and the DIT Gestión group. The Island will have a space in the Canary Islands post and will support the already traditional one of the Association of Tourist Municipalities.
After Fitur, Tenerife will also participate in Madrid Fusión, just the following week. It will do so with a prominent presence in a 350-square-meter space to which it will bring the best products from its primary sector and its gastronomy, a very important part of the attractions it offers.
The evolution of the last six years
Tenerife recovered visitors in 2022. After reaching a record of more than five million tourists (5,000,499) in 2017, it went to the figures for 2020 (1.5) and 2021 (2.3) marked by the pandemic and almost zero tourist. The historical reveals that 4.4 million visitors arrived in 2015, 4.9 in 2016 and those five million in 2017. The slight decrease to 4.8 in 2018 and 2019 (the figure was repeated) gave way to the abyss of the covid-19. Last year it is not closed yet, but sources point to 5.5 million. With the data for November, they are already 144% more than in 2021, although 2.3% less than in 2019, before the pandemic. The trend of the monthly evolution of 2022 is encouraging, from January with 26.7% less than in 2019 to a 4% increase in November compared to the same month three years ago. | JDM
