Tourist Arrivals Continue To Fall In Lanzarote

Easter has provided little in the way of salvation for Lanzarote´s beleaguered tourist industry and property market.  According to the latest passenger figures just released by the Spanish Airport Authority AENA.  Which reveal that arrivals for the year to date have now fallen by nearly 15% versus 2008 figures.  With over 86,000 less tourists visiting the island during the first four months of this year.

The Lanzarote property market has traditionally been fuelled by overseas investment.  Especially from the UK – as British tourists comprise well over half of all visitors to the island, with many buying up villas and apartments in Lanzarote to rent out to their fellow holidaymakers.

But now both tourist arrivals and property transactions on Lanzarote have started to fall sharply.  As the double whammy of the credit crunch and the weakness of sterling against the euro have combined to erode consumer confidence and spending.

So far this year 86,620 fewer foreign tourists have visited Lanzarote versus the same period in 2008.  With the UK accounting for well over half of this figure – as 47,409 less tourists have arrived on flights to Lanzarote from British airports.  A fall in British visitor numbers of 16.14%.

Large falls have also been recorded across all other key national markets.  With visitor numbers from Germany (Lanzarote´s second largest source of tourists) falling by 13.84%.  And from Eire, the islands third largest market, by 8.92%.  With big drops recorded across the Dutch and Scandinavian markets too.

These large falls are inevitably impacting upon all sectors of the islands economy.  With ASOLAN, the local hoteliers association, reporting a cumulative fall in occupancy levels of over 11% for the year to date.  Along with a big drop to just 61% last month.  A gloomy picture that is being replicated in the private holiday rentals market too.  With many owners reporting a dramatic decrease in both enquiries and bookings.

Whilst Lanzarote is still on target to welcome well over one million foreign visitors this year this is still some way off the peak figure of 1.8 million arrivals recorded back in 2003.  And potentially represents the islands worst performance in well over a decade.  Factors that are obviously doing little to motivate the few buyers out there to invest in holiday rental property on the island.

Despite falling property prices many local agents also report on going problems with securing mortgage finance locally.  As island banks continue to adopt risk averse lending policies.