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Diario PYME

Canary Islands See Significant Drop in Foreign Tourists in April

A decrease of over 100,000 visitors last month, primarily from Germany, negatively impacts the year's cumulative figures.

Generic image of an airport departure board with blurred destinations.
IA

Generic image of an airport departure board with blurred destinations.

The Canary Islands recorded a significant decline of over 100,000 foreign tourists during April, marking a 7.6% decrease compared to the previous year and impacting the cumulative balance for the first quarter.

The Canarian archipelago has seen a notable reduction in international visitor arrivals, with a loss of 101,058 tourists in April. This drop brings the total figure to 1.2 million people, compared to the 1.3 million recorded in the same period last year.
Part of this decline is attributed to the effect of Easter Week, which in 2026 took place between March 29 and April 5, whereas in 2025 it occurred later in April. However, data from the Government of Canarias, based on Aena passenger statistics, suggests that the decrease is not solely due to this factor, as March had already shown contained growth of 1.7%.
The German market is the most affected in absolute terms, with a nearly 16% drop, representing about 44,000 fewer tourists. In relative terms, the Scandinavian market experienced the largest setback, exceeding 30%, coinciding with the end of their winter season after Easter Week. British visitors also decreased by 4%, with almost 21,000 fewer people.
This decline in tourist numbers has led to negative figures for the cumulative first four months of the year, with a 0.3% drop, translating to almost 17,000 fewer tourists and placing the total below 5.8 million foreign visitors. This is the first time a decrease has been recorded in the first quarter since 2019, the year before the pandemic.
Despite the overall downward trend, some markets have maintained positive growth. The Dutch market increased by 6.6%, exceeding 60,000 tourists; the Belgian market grew by almost 12%, reaching 44,500 visitors; and the French market rebounded by 14.5%, reaching 57,801 tourists in April.
The reduction in tourists coincides with a 3.5% decrease in flights registered at Canarian airports during April, according to Aena data. The airports handled a total of 4,428,218 passengers, of whom 1,867,561 were on domestic flights (up 0.7%) and 2,546,786 on international flights (down 6.2%).
By airport, Gran Canaria recorded the highest number of passengers with 1,310,395, despite a 2.8% decrease. It was followed by Tenerife Sur with 1,063,254 passengers (-8.2%), César Manrique-Lanzarote with 717,869 (-3.7%), Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna with 620,404 (+4.7%), Fuerteventura with 542,085 (-6.7%), La Palma with 136,020 (+5.4%), El Hierro with 26,787 (+7.6%), and La Gomera with 11,404 (+6.1%).

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