Lanzarote´s tourist industry continues to defy the credit crunch. As foreign visitor numbers for the year to date continue to outstrip 2007 figures – with British tourists leading the way, up by 6.4% for the period January to September end. According to figures recently released by the Spanish airport operators AENA.
Lanzarote has long been a firm favourite with British and Irish tourists. Attracting over one million visitors from these two countries alone during 2007. And these two markets continue to drive the industry today – with British tourist numbers up substantially for the year to date and Irish visitor figures up by 1.7%.
Many island observers feared that the falling pound, failing airlines and crashing consumer confidence would have an adverse effect on Lanzarote´s tourist industry. But to date it has remained surpsingly buoyant – with operators such as Monarch actually increasing the number of flights to Lanzarote and foreign visitor numbers overall showing an increase of 1.6% to September end.
Arguably, this is attributable to the fact that many of these holidays were booked in advance of the credit crunch taking hold. But many holiday operators dispute this – claiming that the bulk of their bookings have been of a more last minute nature. With both British and Irish consumers viewing a holiday as more of an essential than a luxury item. A factor further aided by the fact that there is a good availability of cheap flights to Lanzarote in both market places.
Certainly visitor numbers from some other parts of Europe have indeed fallen back this year. The German tourist market, Lanzarote´s second largest, for example appears to be continuing a longer term decline – with visitor numbers down by 12% to date this year. With Italian, Dutch and French tourists also showing a marked decrease.
But to a large extent these holes have been plugged by increases in visitor numbers from markets such as Scandinavia – once a major source of tourists for Lanzarote. With Finland (up 16.2%), Sweden (41.1%) and Norway (21.9%) all registering substantial increases during the fist nine months of 2008.
Overall, 1,205, 94 foreign visitors have passed through Arrecife aiport during the period from January to September end. With the UK accounting for over half of these passenger numbers, with 632,445 tourists. Germany remains in second place with 206,176 visitors – hotly pursued by Ireland with 169,681 visitors.
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