The stark figures for equivalent tourist population held by the ISTAC (Canary Islands Statistics Institute) paint a picture of Gran Canaria that shatters several myths about volume and overcrowding. While Tenerife boasts the highest number of daily floating tourists (177.867), Gran Canaria holds the title of the slowest tourist destination in the entire archipelago. These official data illustrate the strategy of Antonio Morales, president of Gran Canaria, who has designed a model where tourism grows without encroaching on the islanders' identity outside the accommodation sector in the south of the island.
With an average stay of 10,48 days, visitors to Gran Canaria outstay those of all the other islands, which remain below ten days (Tenerife, for example, registers 8,97). This data suggests high loyalty and a preference for the long-stay model, essential for the stability of the hotel sector in the south. The most surprising statistic, however, is found when analyzing the pressure that tourism exerts on the local population. While on islands like Fuerteventura or Lanzarote the ratio is close to 20 tourists per year for every resident, in Gran Canaria, for every registered inhabitant, "only" 5,3 tourists visit annually.
This ratio is the lowest of all the capital and eastern islands. In terms of direct social pressure, the floating tourist population (13,2% of the total equivalent population) is proportionally the least intrusive in the Canary Islands, which partly explains the island's social stability, as it absorbs the largest population burden in the archipelago. The stark contrast arises when comparing the low social pressure with the high territorial pressure. Gran Canaria has a tourist density of 84,4 people per square kilometer, one of the highest figures in the Canary Islands (only surpassed by Lanzarote).
This stark contrast between the low perceived pressure for the average resident (thanks to the large overall population of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Telde) and the extremely high population density confirms that the tourism conflict is highly localized. In practice, the massive impact is dramatically concentrated in the small southern coastal strip, such as Maspalomas and Mogán, leaving the rest of the island with a sense of "normality" unusual for a destination of its caliber.
