Rising Demand For Lanzarote Villa Holidays

Demand for privately owned rental accommodation on the popular holiday island of Lanzarote rose by just over 14% last month.  Confounding speculation that failing airlines, the falling pound and low consumer confidence could spell the end of holidays abroad.  According to figures just released by the Lanzarote travel and property portal, Lanzarote Guidebook.

In total the Lanzarote Guidebook website received 639 enquiries about holiday accommodation on the island during the course of January 2009.  An increase of 14.2% on 2008 figures and welcome news for the thousands of overseas owners of holiday rental property in Lanzarote.  Many of whom rely heavily on the British market for bookings.

British tourist visits accounted for well over 50% of all of the 1.5 million holidays taken in Lanzarote by non-Spanish nationals during the course of 2008.  And despite fears that the current economic climate could deter UK holiday makers from enjoying their week in the sun figures compiled by the Spanish airport operators AENA reveal that visits from the UK actually rose by 1.9% during the course of last year.  Whilst low cost flight operators Monarch recently announced the addition of extra flights to Lanzarote this summer in order to cope with expected additional demand.

The vast majority of those UK consumers planning a break this year have been searching for villas in Lanzarote rather than apartments.  With Playa Blanca, the newest resort in the south of the island, proving to be the most popular destination.  Attracting 42.7% of all villa enquiries versus nearest resort rival Puerto del Carmen.  Which accounted for 32.3% of total demand for villa properties.

Rural holiday villas have also enjoyed an upswing in popularity.  Reflecting the wider growing interest in rural tourism on the island.  And properties in Lanzarote´s unique volcanic countryside were the focus of 10.9% of all enquiries.  Whilst Lanzarote´s third largest resort of Costa Teguise languished behind rural villas in fourth place – accounting for just 9.12% of all demand.

The islands oldest destination of Puerto del Carmen remains the main hotspot for those solely seeking a holiday apartment.  As the resort was the focus of 56.6% of all enquires for this type of accommodation.  Reflecting the fact Puerto del Carmen has the highest concentration of apartment complexes of any resort on the island. 

Overall however demand for holiday villas outweighed interest in holiday apartments by a ratio of almost 4:1.