Exceltur warns of ‘major chaos’ at Canarian airports this summer

Exceltur, the alliance for Tourism Excellence, are warning of "major chaos" at Spanish airports this summer, especially those that receive the highest number of British tourists, such as Tenerife and Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, as well as in Malaga and Majorca.

This was said yesterday (Wednesday) during the presentation of his report on tourism for the second quarter of the year, by the vice president of Exceltur, José Luis Zoreda, who emphasized that these four airports will experience the biggest problems.

Zoreda has clarified that the "chaos", derived in part from the strong explosion in demand to travel, will be noticed above all in those airports with the highest arrivals of British tourists, who after Brexit must pass through passport control for citizens from outside the European Union, a process that is slower than for EU citizens.

Second-quarter data:
Exceltur predicts that tourism GDP in 2022 could reach 151 billion euros, which means a recovery of 98% of the activity levels of 2019. This is an increase of 10 billion euros compared to the report presented in April and 62 billion above the forecasts for 2021.

Zoreda said that the "unforeseen travel frenzy throughout Europe in recent months has favoured Spain and its tourism sector, leaving behind all the forecasts that had been made for the year and specifically, the second and third quarters before.”

The survey carried out by Exceltur on tourism entrepreneurs reveals there is a continuity in the intensity of the recovery of their activities, which will bring sales for the third quarter closer to levels similar to those prior to the pandemic, only 1.4% below the same period of 2019.

As for the second quarter, the tourism GDP is at levels slightly higher than those of 2019 (+1.1%), although it has not translated into an improvement in profit margins due to the high costs derived from inflation.

The rebound in business activity and income, therefore, does not reflect results that are "in line" with the recovery in demand due to the increase in operating costs (+25% in the case of energy, 16% in supplies and 7.5% of labour), while tourism prices have risen by an average of 6.5%.

However, during this second quarter the disparity and asymmetry of the results by subsectors and tourism companies have increased, with holiday hotels (+3.1% in sales compared to 2019) and urban hotels (+2.2%), car rental companies (-1.8%) and some leisure activities, such as golf (+13.3%) and amusement parks (+11.2%), which recorded the greatest recovery in income.