While awaiting the final figures for December 2025, southern Gran Canaria closed November 2025 with full coffers, but with a restless gaze fixed on the horizon. Promotur's data is clear: the province of Las Palmas is the driving force behind the archipelago's RevPAR (revenue per available room). However, in the corridors of hotels in Maspalomas and Meloneras, the champagne of record-breaking revenue has a bitter aftertaste.
November 2025 confirmed the trend of "tourism inflation." Total revenue in Gran Canaria continues to exceed 2019 and 2024 levels, but actual occupancy in apartments has begun to show signs of fatigue. While hotels in the south maintain an average daily rate (ADR) nearing record highs, profitability is threatened by operating costs that are world-class in the Canary Islands but bargain-basement low on the opposite coast.
Maspalomas enters 2026 as the "epicenter of economic power," but with a structural weakness: the Nordic market—historically the lifeblood of southern Gran Canaria—is beginning to show a worrying divergence, seeking cheaper alternatives due to the loss of purchasing power in their home countries. While the Maspalomas Rehabilitation Consortium is tendering €400.000 worth of bike lanes to try to modernize the destination, just a few nautical miles away, the Dakhla Atlantique project looms like a dark mirror. As Antonio Morales has repeatedly warned, Dakhla is not just a port; it is a state plan to attract 5 million tourists to the market before 2030.
The difference is striking: In southern Gran Canaria, consolidated rights are a reality; in Dakhla, they represent a competitive advantage worth 800 euros per month. While the south grapples with the Holiday Rental Law and the tourist tax, Morocco offers a complete "free zone" to attract the tour operators who currently fill the hotels in Playa del Inglés. Dakhla aims to attract 700.000 hotel tourists by 2030 alone, without the regulatory "penalty" faced by apartment owners in southern Gran Canaria.
The "friendly fire" of trade missions. What stings most in the south is not external competition, but internal competition. The recent trade mission by Proexca and Fedeport to Dakhla has been seen by critics of the Island Council as a betrayal of Gran Canaria's production model. Why promote a port that was created to be the cruise "hub" when today they only stop at the Santa Catalina Wharf and end up spending their money in the shops of the south?
Southern Gran Canaria is closing 2025 with a "vertical acceleration" in revenue, but with a model showing cracks in the face of Rabat's aggressive policies. Morocco has already surpassed the Canary Islands in total number of visitors for the first time ever (19,8 million compared to the islands' record numbers). If Maspalomas and Mogán want to remain the economic engine in 2030, simply raising prices and relying on the weather won't be enough.
