The tourism sector in southern Gran Canaria faces the third quarter of 2026 in a scenario of contrasts, where the stability of the hotel sector stands in stark contrast to the negative figures affecting apartments and certain key source markets. Official indicators of business performance reflect uneven momentum, demonstrating that the economic recovery is not evenly distributed among the different accommodation models in the southern region. While hotel revenue shows a positive balance of 23,11% compared to the same quarter of the previous year and rises to 34,73% compared to the previous quarter, employment linked to the hotel sector shows year-on-year growth of 31,86% and quarter-on-quarter growth of 28,61%, supported by a 31,97% year-on-year increase in price levels and a 24,22% increase compared to the previous period.
The downside of this economic picture is starkly concentrated in the non-hotel accommodation sector. Tourist apartments in the south of the island are experiencing significant negative figures in their occupancy expectations for the summer months, painting a considerably more pessimistic picture than that recorded during the third quarter of 2025. Occupancy forecasts for this type of accommodation are suffering clear year-on-year declines in the key summer months: in July they stand at 62,33% compared to 63,19% the previous year, representing a negative variation of 0,86 percentage points or a decrease of 1,36%.
The situation worsens considerably in August, the peak month of the season, when apartment occupancy falls to 63,78% compared to 66,42% the previous year, a drop of 2,64 percentage points, or a 3,97% decline. Only September manages a slight rebound, reaching 60,50% compared to the previous 60,05%, a marginal increase of 0,45 percentage points, or 0,75%. These figures consistently place Gran Canaria apartments below the archipelago's average, demonstrating a structural decline compared to hotel competition, which maintains an occupancy rate of 77,78% in July, 77,01% in August, and 74,76% in September, exceeding the average figures for the Canary Islands.
A detailed analysis of the balance of expectations regarding traveler trends by market reveals alarming negative data in the apartment sector, where foreign tourism is suffering a widespread collapse. The German market leads the negative balances in this format with an index of -31,61 points, followed by the Nordic countries with a worrying balance of -45,49 points, the United Kingdom with -1,63 points, the rest of Europe with -5,04 points, and other countries with -22,79 points. The only positive support for apartments comes from the domestic market, which registers a favorable balance of 37,68 points, improving by 6,04 percentage points compared to the third quarter of 2025. However, the deterioration in international demand for non-hotel accommodation reflects a worrying loss of competitiveness for complexes in the south of the island.
In the hotel sector, although overall volume remains afloat thanks to the strength of Spanish travelers, who reached a balance of 43,97 points, and British travelers, who stood at 28,43 points, significant negative data also emerged in strategic markets. Expectations from German travelers fell to a negative balance of -4,68 points, although they experienced a slight positive change of 0,56 points compared to the previous year; the Nordic countries registered a significant negative balance of -28,64 points; and the "other countries" group plummeted to -5,56 points. Likewise, the domestic hotel market, despite remaining in positive territory, suffered a year-on-year drop of 16,34 percentage points in its balance compared to the third quarter of 2025. These figures demonstrate that the tourism engine of southern Gran Canaria is navigating mixed data, demanding a thorough strategic review from local managers to stem the bleeding of foreign visitors in apartments and consolidate hotel stability in the face of an increasingly volatile market.
