Business in the south of Gran Canaria: what Las Palmas knows about tourism for this autumn

The information managed by the funds that own hotel beds in the south of Gran Canaria for the autumn season is positive. Another thing is that commercial representatives in the south are always crying to narrow margins for local suppliers who manage to overcome the barriers to access the tourism business. Southern Gran Canaria and Egypt lead the way with a combined 45% of winter sales to date, according to figures released by TDA. 

The current revenue growth is due to higher average prices and not more bookings, and the trend will continue this winter. Alltours, for example, expects prices to increase by 5% to 10%, while TUI expects prices to increase by 4% to 5% in all major source markets. By contrast, the number of people booking holidays has decreased: -14% in summer 2023 and -17% for winter 2023/24, according to TDA figures. "Not all households in Germany can afford a holiday with a tour operator this year," market researchers clarify.

At the same time, there is a clear movement towards more online bookings for next winter, according to Midoco's Travel Index. Online retailers have a 63% increase in revenue and 23% more bookings compared to 2018/19. In contrast, travel agencies, with much higher average revenue per package, have a 30% drop in bookings and a slight 1% drop in revenue compared to their equivalent levels before the pandemic. On average, the value of a reservation in a travel agency is twice that of online sales. In other words, more people book online at lower prices.

Tour operators also have a gap between bookings and revenue, although much smaller due to their mix of sales through travel agencies and online. Alltours, for example, only has a 5% difference between both figures. One of the reasons, according to Verhuven, owner of Alltours, is that customers are also booking shorter holidays.

Tourist bookings for the south of Gran Canaria continue to increase: Alltours boss Willi Verhuven is satisfied with the winter season. "The reserve situation is very good," he said. Record sales, more advance bookings and plenty of air capacity: are current market trends for winter 2023-24 too good to be true?

Unlike in autumn 2022, when high inflation and rising energy prices hit travel sales, many Germans appear to be putting aside financial worries about higher costs and rushing to take advantage of holiday deals. for the next winter season.

One factor supporting market growth is that airlines have almost returned to the same flight levels as before the pandemic in response to the strong improvement in demand. According to researchers Travel Data & Analytics (TDA), sales revenue is 6% above the same period in 2018/19 and up to 57% above weak levels last autumn. "The booking situation is very good," commented Alltours boss Willi Verhuven, reflecting the mood among tour operators.

Furthermore, the extreme short-term booking trend that characterized last winter and this year's summer season is weakening. "At the beginning of the year we noticed that many of our guests were booking well in advance," said Detlef Schroer, sales director at Schauinsland-Reisen. "This trend continues through the winter."

However, clients from the south of Gran Canaria generally continue to book less in advance than in the past. For example, according to TDA, only 27% of booked revenue in August was attributable to the winter season, about six percentage points less than in August 2019. The bulk came from August, September and October bookings.