The best May for tourism in the last decade

[Guanche]

Very good news so long as the tourist are generating money for the island, and its staying on the island?

[Delderek]

And still it continues. November's figures have "shot up" by 17.9% compared with the same period last year, and have broken all records. November 2013 has the best figures for November that have ever been recorded for this time of year, with 1,073,759 tourists, says the Ministerio de Industria y Turismo. Not only that, but this year's figures taken together show a new "historic maximum", with 9,591,419 visitors to the end of November, up 4% from last year. Turismo is jubilant that this year will pass into the record books in both these respects, and said that when figures for the whole of 2013 are released at the end of this month, it expects that another record will be broken in the number of visitors in a complete year - the current record is 10,210,000 in 2011. Good news for us all, and long may it continue! JA

All very good news.  But how much is due to the Egypt effect. Winter daytime temps are 4 /5 deg higher than Tenerife. And those tourists that have been in tenerife the last few weeks. Just wont come back. They will take the risk In  Egypt..

[poker]

I would not go to Egypt even if they gave me money , been tere seen it but boy the mentality once youre out of the hotels and really in the streats . . . . .

[Janet]

We now know that tourist numbers are up despite impressions of "it never being so quiet". Now, another myth that "they" are all staying in all-inclusive accommodation and not going outside to spend is itself shattered with official figures showing not only that tourist spending is up, but that spending by tourists who are staying in hotels has risen the most.

Statistics from November show that foreign tourist spending here grew 10.1% throughout 2013 compared with 2012, giving a total spend of €10.5m, a figure that itself represents nearly a fifth of all tourist spending in Spain, putting the Canaries in third place after Catalonia and the Balearics. The figures have been produced by survey carried out by the Spain's Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo. In November specifically, thanks no doubt to our climate attracting winter sun visitors, that percentage shot up 23% to €1,262,000, 37.7% of the total national tourist spend.   

How then to account for the "it's never been so quiet" stories one hears, something that is particularly confusing given that the biggest proportion of spending is still being made by British tourists, just over 20% of the total spent here by foreign visitors (followed by the Germans, then the French, then the Scandinavians - surprisingly not the Russians ... yet). I fail to see any alternative but to accept that the upmarket push is working, and that the spending is exactly where the Canarian Government wants it to be, in golf, spas, niche markets, and the like. What analysis of the released figures makes clear, in any case, is that spending grew most among those staying in hotels, a rise of 16.9%, so they are indeed "getting out and spending" ... just not in the "traditional" places.

I think it is perhaps time that these figures, which are now repeatedly being replicated, are accepted for what they are, and that the changing face of tourism in the Canaries is recognized as a move not just towards different visitors, but different requirements from the customary major British market. Those establishments which "have never been so quiet" might have their core market, but this will not be enough to survive unless they adapt and evolve to meet the new reality. JA

[Janet]

I said above in my 23 December post that Turismo was jubilant that 2013 would pass into the record books for the number of visitors in a complete year – the current record was 10,210,000 in 2011. And, indeed, the Canaries did break the record, with 10.63 million visitors throughout last year, up 421,599 from 2011's record. The good news was released today by the Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo. The biggest markets continue to be Germany, the UK and the Scandinavian countries, but Russia and Italy are increasingly strong. JA

[Janet]

The Cabildo has announced that Tenerife started the year with an increase of 3.7% on last January's tourist numbers. After last year's record-breaking figures, President Carlos Alonso said that figures were again up whichever data one looked at, and that January's visitors boded well for 2014. Some 402,494 holidaymakers stayed in tourist accommodation here last month, both hotels, apartments and rural houses. 

British and German visitors continue to be Tenerife's two main  markets, with Scandinavian visitor numbers increasing some 15%. Russian holidaymakers are the fourth major market. Also showing good growth, however, are the markets the tourist authorities are now giving paying attention, namely France, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria and eastern Europe. The only figures to decrease were the Dutch and Belgian markets. JA