SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 10 Aug. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The islands of El Hierro and La Gomera lead the province of Tenerife in percentage increases in overnight stays in rural tourism accommodation in the first half compared to the same period in 2019, with increases of 45% and 13.7%, respectively, according to data operated by the Observatory of Tourism Competitiveness and Sustainability of Ashotel, belonging to the Survey of occupation in rural tourism accommodation of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
In total, the province registered 146,957 overnight stays in this period, barely -0.88% compared to the same pre-pandemic interval, although the behavior in La Palma and Tenerife has not been as positive as in the other two islands. While the first shows a slight fall of -1.64%, the second raises that fall to -6.51%. Of this total of overnight stays, 59.7% corresponded to residents abroad and 40.3% to residents in Spain.
In addition to overnight stays, other indicators of interest contribute to making the X-ray of this sector in the process of recovery. Thus, in terms of travelers staying in rural tourism establishments, the province of Tenerife closed the first six months of 2022 with a total of 30,205 people, which already exceeds the pre-pandemic figures, although still with an increase of 0.66%. This indicator is positive in El Hierro (1,096 lodged, +60%), in La Palma (7,070, +24.2%) and La Gomera (4,317, +17.3%), but it still does not exceed the 2019 data in the case of Tenerife (17,722, -11.2%).
According to this INE survey, the province estimates a total of 2,475 places in rural tourism accommodation at the end of June, a figure that represents an increase of 4.8% compared to the same pre-pandemic period.
Finally, regarding the degree of occupancy by beds, there are certain differences between islands. El Hierro is the one with the best recovery, exceeding the data for 2019 during all the months of this first half of 2022, although in the month of June this year, with an average of 18.6%, the figure is lower to the year 2021 (21.2%). La Gomera also shows data higher than that of 2019 in almost the entire semester, with the sole exception of the month of June, in which the occupation reaches 16.17% in 2022 compared to 17.27% in 2019.
Tenerife, for its part, although it started with worse figures during the first quarter, improved its situation compared to 2019 during the months of April and May; however, last June it was again below the 2019 data (22.1%) compared to 21.9% this year.
In the case of La Palma, the semester ends with very positive data compared to 2019, almost doubling its average occupancy in June and going from 18% in 2019 to 31.1% in 2022. These positive data contrast with those at the beginning of the year in Isla Bonita, which were more negative; the first symptoms of recovery are seen from the month of April.
