The tourism recovery Fill the canarian hotels In Christmas. Many accommodations in the Archipelago have already posted the full sign and the rest expect to reach very important occupancy percentages especially in the key week of these holidays, the one that goes from December 26 to January 1. Hoteliers hope that with last-minute reservations, occupancy will reach 90% and thus round off the figures for what has been the year of comeback after the pandemic.
“There are complexes that are already at 100% sales, the forecasts are very good, we are equal to or better than the best pre-pandemic year,” said Jorge Marichal, president of the Hotel and Extra-Hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Iron (Ashotel)which also points out that the uncertainty due to inflation and the war in Ukraine has not been able to with the desire to travel and everything indicates that “until well into the summer the tourist push will continue”.
For now, only with the reservations that are already confirmed, the occupation in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is 85% in the week between Christmas and New Year. By islands, La Palma slightly surpasses Tenerife, with 87.5% compared to 85.2% for the capital island. Occupancy in La Gomera stood at 78.5% that week, while El Hierro reached 36%. Although it is expected that with organized trips at the last minute -a trend that began in the pandemic and that seems to be here to stay- these percentages will advance significantly. In general, for the period between December 19 and January 8, confirmed reservations already represent 78.1% of the places in the province.
The situation will be similar in the accommodations of the eastern province. José María Mañaricua, president of the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs of Las Palmas (FEHT), forecasts that occupancy during Christmas will be around 90% and that the average for the entire month of December will be around 80%. The profile of the tourists who will stay in the establishments will be mostly foreign, although he maintains that the Canaries also tend to help fill the rooms that remain pending with last-minute getaways. Especially if the weather is good, since he pointed out that on the December long weekend, when the islanders also give a boost to hotel reservations, “there were many cancellations due to weather forecasts.”
