While most areas in Europe are fighting overtourism and telling Brits to get out, one island is surprisingly doing the opposite. It is trying to attract more visitors, but only if it has one specific thing.
The Canary Islands are incredibly popular with British tourists, attracting nearly 6 million in 2023. Still, one of them is trying to change its reputation with a different type of holidaymaker.
Tenerife is the most popular Canary Islands with Brits, with roughly 2.3 million flocking there in 2022. Overall, tourists increased from 15 million in 2019 to 16 million in 2023.
Despite these high figures, officials have insisted the island is not dealing with overcrowding, but they want to change one thing about the island’s visitors.
Dimple Melwani, chief executive of the Tenerife Tourism Corporation, revealed she is working to attract a more wealthy clientele rather than people in search of a cheap all-inclusive and nights out.
She said at World Travel Market London that the islands are “far from” exeriencing overtourism and are in fact looking to draw in more people, as long as they’re high spenders.
She explained, “In the Canary Islands, we are far from the rates of tourist overcrowding of other competing destinations in the Mediterranean area and much further away from urban destinations, which suffer even more from this reality.
“We aim to continue improving and adapting our destination by enhancing the current offerings and tourism products.”
Tenerife’s 2025 tourism strategy hinges on attracting “new visitors with a higher level of income”, much like Lanzarote’s similar “diversification” of the tourism industry through more “upmarket” visitors.
The end goal is to boost Tenerife’s economy and tourism-related employment to ensure more people have steadier sources of income.
Melwani hopes that people will see the island as a “destination for outdoor sporting activities, gastronomy and traditions”.
Bookings to Tenerife for the last quarter of 2024 increased by 41% compared to last year, partly due to an increase in air services by nearly 13%.