The island tourist destination secures the loyalty of the customer who generates the most profit, with the highest turnover, highest spending and most days of stay during the first day of the Berlin tourism fair and reference for German customers.
The German tourism market has regained its position as the historical leader in the Gran Canaria destination in 2024. It does so as the international client that leads the billing data, with 1.360 million, being also the second in spending per tourist and trip, with 1.731 euros and the third in volume of client arrivals, with a total of 903.023 German visitors. These data have been recorded in a 2024 year marked by recovery, after the German country went through several years of economic uncertainty and restraint in spending. Now, the Gran Canaria Tourism team, led by councillor Carlos Álamo, has confirmed after a first day with twenty professional meetings on its agenda that the rise and positive trend of the German client will continue in 2025, with the priority of the island established in billing.
The Minister of Tourism of the Government of Spain, Jordi Hereu, agreed with this assessment during his visit to the Canary Islands. “It is confirmed that the trend in 2025 is to continue growing. We are growing more in revenues at the destination and this means an injection of prosperity for the Canary Islands, beyond the number of visitors. The important thing is to continue investing in generating a value and quality proposal, which is what the Canary Islands do, and we are very encouraged that by being at the ITB we can start the year with a good trend,” explained Hereu.
The Gran Canaria Tourism Councillor, for his part, explained that a good indicator when establishing forecasts is usually the number of seats put on the market by airlines, since they are made based on forecasts and the level of reservations, which according to technicians have skyrocketed in advance sales since last November. “The situation of German connectivity to the Gran Canaria destination shows a clear recovery of levels, especially from November 2024, when results higher than 2023 and 2019 begin to be obtained. We will have to see the end of winter, but the improvement is evident and points to a historic season in income,” said the councillor.
In the current winter season, the island has 666.710 places available, 13,6% more than in the 2023/2024 winter season. Meanwhile, the forecast for places available for the summer of 2025 also shows significant increases, with an increase of 22,8%, with a total of 406.245 places. Among these, 233.488 places are planned between April and June, with an increase of 28% compared to the previous year. Between August and October, 174.209 places, 17% more. It should be remembered that the German market is mainly winter.
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The tourist destination of Gran Canaria is one of the few, internationally, that show a growth in terms of the number of German clients, with a three percentage point increase compared to 2019, the reference before the pandemic and also the appearance of energy and financial problems that have weighed down the Bavarian economy in recent years. In fact, Germans have not yet recovered pre-pandemic values, since 10% fewer total tourist trips are recorded. “Despite traveling less, they travel more to the island of Gran Canaria, a destination with 68% of repeaters in this market and which also leads in terms of days of stay, with 11,8 days, compared to 10,4 in the rest of the markets. This adds value to the relationship with this client, who has been of major importance in the past and is again so now. They are the client who generates the highest economic return for each stay and fit our strategy, based on the idea of growing moderately and sustainably,” explained the councilor.
“The data from this market has been very positive for Gran Canaria in 2024, and it confirms the continuous improvement of this client and also of the destination itself, with a clear increase in value in the offer, with a renewed tourist infrastructure, thanks to the effort we are making with the Maspalomas Consortium, and also, importantly, in the growing position that gastronomy and local products occupy among the motivations of this client”, explained Carlos Álamo. But above these values, the counselor highlighted the fact that the German client has significantly reduced the contracting of all-inclusive packages, which benefits the island's businesses. The contracting of all-inclusive packages has dropped to 27,26% when the previous year it was 32,31%. The percentage of accommodation with breakfast increases from 25,62% in 2023 to 30,25% in 2024. “For us, it is a priority that the client spends more money on the island and for this reason they now find reasons to do so that they did not have before. Without going any further, 35% of them have among their priorities enjoying our gastronomy and now active, sporting and natural tourism, with a great interest in the trails, has also allowed tourists to be relocated and distributed throughout the island, with the effect that this has on the rest of the non-tourist municipalities. There is a significant fact. Tourist income on the island, not counting those of Mogán and San Bartolomé de Tirajana, has grown by 66% compared to 2019,” said Álamo.
The fundamental fact for the Minister of Tourism is the appreciation of the complementary product to sun and beach, which is rising in the statistics. “If you analyse the data, you can see how we have returned to the good numbers of the period before the pandemic, but we have incorporated and valued resources and products from the island that have increased turnover to values much higher than inflation in recent years. I am referring to gastronomy, the offer linked to active and sports tourism, visits to the summit, to the interior or to the municipalities of the north, among other factors that are also key to boosting employment like never before in our territory,” said Álamo.
