British visitors continue to dominate tourism in the Canary Islands

British tourism continues to dominate the Canary Islands. Neither Brexit nor inflation are affecting the number of visitors from the UK which is increasing month by month. In March of this year, and according to figures published yesterday by the Ministry of Tourism, over 510,000 Brits came to the islands which is 7% (36,000 people) more than in 2019. In the first quarter, the increase is 9% with almost 113,000 more people, and a total of 1.4 million people.

The number of British tourists has grown on all the islands, although Tenerife and Lanzarote are the ones that had the most. Tenerife received almost 230,000 British visitors and Lanzarote had 134,500 in March. In the first three months of 2023 there were 623,432 and 357,844 arrivals respectively.

However, the rest of the islands are a long way behind: 208,815 Brits travelled to Gran Canaria from January to March, and 176,627 to Fuerteventura.

Opposite to this is how the German market has reacted. The number of visitors from Germany dropped in March after having very similar figures to 2019. In fact, last month almost twice as many British tourists as German tourists came to the islands.

The biggest drop occurred in Gran Canaria, where German tourism fell by 23.4% in March. This means that, for the first time, Tenerife received more German tourism than Gran Canaria, with 85,465 visitors compared to 85,073 according to the Ministry’s data.

In the first quarter, Gran Canaria still had the most German visitors, the island's traditional market, but only by very little: 250,129 compared to 246,758 in Tenerife. Almost 180,000 Germans went to Fuerteventura and 80,202 to Lanzarote.

In the archipelago as a whole, from January to March, there were 771,249 visitors from Germany, which is 8.5% less. In numbers, this is almost 71,000 people, of which Gran Canaria accounts for almost 50,000 (71%).