The latest market update from Gran Canaria Tourism paints a picture worthy of an Escher painting: the tourist is no longer a static entity glued to a sun lounger on Playa del Inglés. Now, driven by a mixture of anthropological curiosity and, it is suspected, by the price of beachfront rentals, the Spanish visitor has decided that mobility is their new religion.
Pablo Llinares, Gran Canaria’s tourism manager, celebrates what he calls a “balanced distribution of income.” In financial terms, this means that domestic capital has decided to colonize Agaete and Teror. Spanish tourists have discovered there’s more to life than the all-you-can-eat buffet and have taken to the roads of the north. While Mogán and the Maspalomas Dunes remain the last bastions of picture-postcard tourism, the “dispersion effect” is bringing euros (and the rumble of wheeled suitcases) to the most unexpected corners of the island. A victory for statistics, a threat to parking in the inland towns.
But if there’s one statistic that should have infrastructure analysts scratching their heads, it’s the Italian miracle. With a growth rate of 22%, the heirs of the Roman Empire are arriving on the island en masse (135.050 by November 2025) despite the lack of direct air connectivity.
Italians, resilient by nature, don’t shy away from layovers or waiting in connecting airports if the prize is Gran Canaria. However, here’s the catch for the hotel industry: this market is the king of “couch tourism.” With an average stay of up to 14 days, Italians don’t come to pay for suites, but rather to stay in the homes of family, friends, or that house their cousin bought. They consume a lot of Aperol, but rarely check in. It’s a model that compensates for the decline in German and Scandinavian tourists, but leaves hotel sheets surprisingly cold.
Finally, the Portuguese market is experiencing its own particular love affair with the south of the island, consolidating its position as the favorite destination for its Iberian neighbors. With Lisbon and Porto injecting visitors thanks to a double-digit increase in connectivity, the Portuguese are poised to break their own 2024 record. It’s clean, predictable, and highly convenient growth that demonstrates that when a direct flight is offered, tourists respond with the eagerness of those seeking sunshine that sometimes seems to forget to shine in the North Atlantic.