The Canary Islands' tourism map is once again showing a clear pattern in 2024: Gran Canaria is positioned as the second most competitive island in terms of accommodation, supported by its more than 47.000 jobs in hotels and apartments, second only to Tenerife. The gap between the two remains narrow, according to the latest island indicators for ADR, RevPAR, and occupancy, which place the island in a high position despite registering modest year-on-year changes—between 0% and 4% in prices and employment.
These are some of the variables in the tourism business, which analyzes experiential aspects such as gastronomy. The president of the Gran Canaria Island Council, Antonio Morales, made these remarks on Monday at the opening of the twelfth edition of the Maspalomas-Costa Canaria International Tourism Forum at Expomeloneras. The analysis by micro-destinations reveals the magnitude of the phenomenon: Playa del Inglés consolidates its position as the largest tourist center in the archipelago, with more than 37.000 accommodation places, far ahead of Meloneras, which has 10.465. The disparity in scale is evident—a difference of more than 26.000 beds—but not in profitability, where both areas continue to perform divergently.
Meloneras once again stands out, registering the highest ADR in the Canary Islands in 2024 at €227 and also leading the regional RevPAR at €191. This area, with its exceptional concentration of 5-star hotels, surpasses the Gran Canaria average by more than €50 and even outpaces the premium areas of Tenerife and Lanzarote, whose average ADRs range between €140 and €160. The growth curve is also robust, with year-on-year increases exceeding 6%. The more established areas of the Playa del Inglés–San Agustín corridor experience occupancy rates linked to seasonality, with more moderate year-on-year variations of around 0,5–2 percentage points.
The economic weight of the south is underscored by another statistic: Playa del Inglés and Meloneras account for 47% of Gran Canaria's accommodation sector employment, a figure exceeding 20.000 workers between these two micro-destinations. This reinforces the argument that urban planning, mobility, and hotel repositioning decisions must be addressed at the micro-territorial level, not just at the island level. In the regional context, Gran Canaria remains competitive against islands like Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which show year-on-year RevPAR growth between 10% and 20%, and against Tenerife, which continues to lead the supply structure with more than 80.000 beds. Average Daily Rate (ADR) variations in the Canary Islands range from -2% to 14%, depending on the island, while occupancy rates show contrasts of up to 20 percentage points between established destinations and areas with lower accommodation density.
Island accommodation employment is growing at rates ranging from 0% to 6%, depending on the island, with Tenerife leading in absolute terms and Gran Canaria in a second position reinforced by its ability to stabilize demand and prices in a context of changing tourist patterns in northern Europe.
