Canaries tourism down 12.3% in 2009

Figures recently released state that tourism in the Canary Islands was down 12.3% in 2009 when compared to the previous year of 2008. Over 8.2 million people visited the islands during the year of 2009. Nationally, tourism was down 8.2% in the whole of Spain. British tourists being the highest visitors with over 13.3 million visitors (nationally) which is down 15.5% when compared to 2008. This decrease is being blamed on the econimic crisis and the low pound-euro conversion rate.