UK Tourism To Lanzarote Up 6%

Credit crunch. What credit crunch? That seems to be the message from British consumers. As new figures just released reveal that British visitor numbers to Lanzarote have in fact increased by 6% to October end this year.

Despite the current economic climate British tourists are still flocking to the small Canary Island of Lanzarote. According to Spanish airport operators AENA. News that will make welcome reading for the many overseas investors who own holiday property in Lanzarote.

Lanzarote has in fact been a popular destination for British tourists for decades. As the island has a great year round climate and is just four hours flying time from the UK. Making it one of the closest winter sun destinations to Britain.

As a Spanish owned island local customs and culture are all fairly familiar to British guests. As Spain is the most popular holiday destination in the world for UK tourists. And cheap flights to Lanzarote (2) are also readily available, thanks to operators such as Monarch and easyJet. Who service the island from most of the major airports in the UK.

The AENA figures show that British tourists make up more than half of all visits to the island by non-Spanish nationals. Accounting for 708,506 of the total of 1,341,556 passenger arrivals.

Visitor numbers from the Republic of Ireland have also increased across this same period. Up by 1.39%. So further reinforcing Lanzarote´s position as the most popular holiday destination in Spain for Irish tourists.

And big gains have also been recorded in other key markets such as Scandinavia. With visitor numbers from Sweden up by Up 35.07% year on year followed by Norway (up 19.6%) and Finland (up 14.33%).

However the picture isn´t so rosy in Lanzarote´s second largest market place, Germany. Where visitor numbers have been in long term decline as German consumers desert the island in favor of other, newer holiday destinations.

Here, tourist arrivals are down by 13.23% - a worrying decline that is being addressed by island tourist authorities with a large scale marketing campaign designed to win back these missing German guests.

Overall however tourist numbers to the island remain positive – up by 1.1% for the year to date. So confounding speculation that the credit crunch could spell the end for holidays abroad.