Ana M. López
Research expert covering travel, tourism and hospitality
Travel and tourism in the Canary Islands - statistics & facts
The Canary Islands are the third most internationally visited region in Spain. Located off the coast of Morocco in the North Atlantic Ocean, this volcanic archipelago has become a major holiday destination for Europeans. With its subtropical climate and a vast array of landscapes, ranging from endless coastal dunes to millenary forests and volcanoes, the Canaries have something to offer for every kind of traveler and locals are aware of it. Tourism has been one of their key economic activities for decades, with its contribution to the regional GDP remaining at over 30 percent during the second half of the 2010s. For this reason, the COVID-19 pandemic hit many islanders particularly hard.
Tourism in the Canaries amid COVID-19
During the COVID-19 outbreak, the United Kingdom and Germany remained, along with mainland Spain, as the three most important tourism source markets for the popular Spanish archipelago. However, the volume of international tourism was still strongly affected by the crisis, dropping to only 3.8 and 5.3 million in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In the following year, the Canaries experienced a near to full improvement on international tourism, when the number of foreign visitors climbed to more than 12 million.What is the main destination in the archipelago?
The largest Canary Island, Tenerife, is by far the most visited destination in this Spanish autonomous community. In 2022, Tenerife received over 5.8 million international and domestic tourists. The United Kingdom is the main source market for tourism in this destination, surpassing by far the volume of tourism originated in Spain’s mainland. Gran Canaria, the second most visited island, received nearly 3.8 million tourists that same year. And in this case, the largest group among visitors were also British.The importance of the hotel industry
Like in most major tourist destinations, hotels play a key role in the Canary Islands. In fact, over 60 percent of tourists prefer to stay at hotels, mostly in 4-star establishments. In total, there were more than 370 hotels in the Canaries in 2021, of which six out of ten were in Tenerife and Gran Canaria. These two destinations were responsible for two-thirds of 1.6 billion euros of total revenue generated by hotels in the Canary Islands.
