The Canary Islands add a new tourist record in the first quarter of this year and at the gates of 20A

These March figures only round off what has been a very powerful first quarter for the islands’ tourism sector. So far this year they have landed on the islands 4.34 million international tourists, 562,000 more than in the first three months of 2023. The data thus refutes that the Canary Islands are not only at a peak moment in terms of tourist arrivals but that the rebound between both periods is also pronounced, in this case 15%.

When explaining this significant increase in the number of arrivals, it is difficult not to look at the current situation in the Middle East, with the war between Israel and Hamas, to which Iran and the Houthi crisis in the Red Sea.

Two brawls that, like what happened in 2017, the year from which the archipelago’s previous tourist record dates, are causing thousands of travelers to decide to avoid usual destinations for these dates such as Egypt, Turkey or Jordan and focus their attention on the Canary Islands, which, as a consequence, is experiencing the best winter season in its history.

Demonstration on all the islands

Last Saturday, the island of La Gomera joined the demonstrations next Saturday, April 20, completing the union of all the islands in a protest which according to its own organizers, will be historical.

For its part, Initiative for La Gomera (IxLG) announced yesterday its support for the mobilizations, which in the case of La Gomera will be held in the Plaza de Las Américas, against the economic development model of the islands.

The association defends that the current tourism model of the archipelago consists of «extraction of resources as if they were unlimited“, being a model that “accumulates and concentrates wealth, while working people see how their lives become increasingly precarious. That is why, with more reason than ever, we must be on the side of social mobilizations,” they point out from the Insular Initiative Committee for La Gomera (IxLG).

For anyone who may think that mass tourism does not affect the island, IxLG assures in a note that they are not exempt from the problems “that has generated mass tourism on the neighboring island of Tenerife. We have seen how during more than 30 years of managing Curbelo a large amount of money has been invested public money in pufa works of viewpoints, focused mainly on one-day round-trip tourism, which we have seen increase over all these years,” they indicate.

Clavijo supports revising the model

The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, assured that all the actions initiated by the regional Executive are aimed at reviewing the tourism model of the archipelago, which although he considered it to be “successful”, it can also be “to perfect”.

In the same way, he elaborated on the fact that the Canarian tourism model is a successful model but, obviously, “like all things can be perfected and as it evolves and after the pandemic, well, new products or new tourist offers such as vacation rentals.

A modality that, in his opinion, will allow “to add more land, transform it legally” making it easier for municipalities with other types of demand, such as Agaete, to allow the private sector “to create protected housing, which in the end will be oriented towards rents between 300 and 400 euros.