In 2020 alone the brutal effects on businesses on the island of Tenerife had led to the closure of some 845 companies and 30,324 jobs, which is due to the devastating halt to tourism.
The year saw countries close their borders and governments restricting the movements of people, putting barriers in place making it difficult to travel, which led to a shocking decrease of 70.5% in tourism here in Tenerife. This figure represents a total of 1.8 million tourists who visited the island in 2020. However, last year is the first year that tourism in the Canary Islands surpassed that of the mainland and the Balearic Islands, with the order of which countries tourists come from remaining the same, UK, Spain, Germany and France.
José Gregorio Martín Plata, a councillor for the Cabildo of Tenerife, and the delegate in tourism, David Pérez, presented a balance sheet highlighting the effects of the pandemic on the tourism sector. Showing the closure of 845 businesses, 12.4% of the sector and the loss of 30,324 jobs, 47.1% of employment. However, even in the face of this disaster, there is still hope for 2021 because, according to José "we have everything prepared after an intense work to receive tourists when they return to a destination that they prove to be very faithful to."
Meanwhile, there is a plan in place to relaunch tourism, with a new brand image and marketing campaign, which will launch in April. But, the counsellors are cautious in giving any particular date that they expect tourism to return to the island due to the effects of the ongoing pandemic and how governments react to the evolving situation. There have been many false starts to tourism, but each time rebounds due to increases in coronavirus cases and the necessary restrictive and sanitary measures that follow.
The launch of the new marketing campaign will commence on April 14th and last through to April 18th, due to a promotion of the island in the Tenerife Golf Open, which forms a part of the European Tour of Golf. Which then will be followed in June by another promotion at the Aviation Event promoting connectivity and includes personalities from aeronautical companies and airline operators. These promotions are expected to reach 300 million homes in 180 countries.
But there is hope, Tenerife is still a favourite destination for tourists with 56.5% of last years figures being repeaters, people who have visited the island before. Showing loyalty to the island that many tourists have. Which is further highlighted by that fact that in October when the UK government added the Canary Islands to its flight corridor list, demand for Tenerife grew by 700%. Therefore when travel is once again allowed and people have a bit more freedom to move it looks almost certain that tourism will return to Tenerife and the Canaries in general.