Tourism spend in the Canaries beats historic records

Income from tourism during November 2012 has reached the highest level since records began in 2005 reaching €1,046 million during the month before the Christmas season. Factors adding to this achievement were increases in hotel prices and raised taxes on the airline companies. The figure of €1,046 million is up 2.2% on the same month last year (November 2011).

So far this year (2012) tourism has provided the Canary Islands with an income of €9,657 million which is an increase of €415 million for the same period last year (2011) representing an increase of 4.5%. This increase in spend comes despite a slight drop in tourist arrivals to the Canaries between January and November this year which has seen a total of 9,220,852 tourists visiting the islands, 73,000 less than 2011, a decrease of -0.8%.

Business owners in the Canaries attribute this rise and high demand, among other factors, by the diversion of tourists from areas of conflict such as Egypt and Tunisia which allowed providers to slightly rise prices for 2012. Hotel prices have risen in the Canary Islands in the first 11 months of 2012 by an average of 2.1%, according to the Institute of National Statistics (INE).