All-inclusive trips to southern Gran Canaria with flights starting at €549. This winter, Gran Canaria launched an ambitious promotional campaign in Romania, a market that has gone from being a promising prospect to a strategic priority. Between February 8th and 13th, the island's delegation toured the country's main economic hubs, from the booming region of Transylvania to the capital, Bucharest, with a clear objective: to attract the new Romanian tourist, whose purchasing power has experienced unprecedented growth in the last decade.
The lowest-paid Romanian worker now earns 60% of what a Canary Islander earns at the same level, but with a significantly lower cost of living in their home country, giving them greater savings capacity for vacations. The average gross salary is around €1.600 per month. However, in cities like Cluj-Napoca (the technology hub where Gran Canaria Tourism has recently launched a promotional campaign), salaries in the IT and advanced services sectors easily exceed €2.500. The average salary in the Canary Islands is around €1.630-€1.700 gross per month. This is one of the lowest in Spain due to the weight of the service and hospitality sectors. The key fact: For the first time in modern history, when taxes are factored in, the average Romanian salary is higher than that of a Gran Canarian.
The initiative, carried out in partnership with tour operator Karpaten Turism, responds to an undeniable economic reality. Romania leads Europe in wage growth, with an average salary already reaching €1.600 and a minimum wage projected to climb to €795 by 2026. This economic dynamism has fueled the demand for high-quality international destinations, a demand that Gran Canaria aims to channel towards the south of the island by supporting the 35% increase in airline seats scheduled by Wizz Air for next summer.
The strategy has focused on decentralization, moving away from the exclusive focus on the capital. The professional roadshow has stopped in Cluj-Napoca, the country's technology hub, and Oradea, cities with an emerging middle class and significant spending power. At these sessions, Gran Canaria Tourism, accompanied by accommodation giants such as Lopesan, Barceló, and Livvo, presented the island's advantages to local travel agents, highlighting safety, climate, and hotel excellence as key differentiators compared to competing Mediterranean destinations.
The mission culminated at the Romanian Tourism Fair (TTR) in Bucharest. At the Romexpo venue, the Gran Canaria delegation intensified B2B contacts at a critical time: the start of the booking cycle for the summer season and spring breaks. If sales meet expectations, the next step will be the implementation of an exclusive charter flight, which would mark Romania's emergence as a direct source market for Gran Canaria's tourism sector.
