2014 was a good year overall for tourism in the Canary Islands, no doubt helped by problems in Egypt and Greece. There are 11 major resort areas in the “Big Four” islands and the number of guest nights (number of tourists multiplied by the average number of nights each tourist stays) is shown below.
Gran Canaria has the archipelogo’s largest resort area, encompassing Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés, although arguably the contiguous municipalities of Adeje and Arona (Tenerife) are bigger. But how have these resorts fared over the past five years?
We can see that the municipalities with the largest tourism business, as measured by guest nights, have grown steadily since 2009, Gran Canaria’s tourism trade has performed disastrously by comparison. Mogán, GC’s second area, has grown by 14% since 2009, but this figure is still below average compared to the other islands and does not make up for the weak performance of San Bartolomé de Tirajana.
We can see from the graphic below what not only have guest nights declined overall in Gran Canaria but it has lost its place as the major island visited and stayed in by tourists, which is now Tenerife.
