German visitors beat those from UK, says Lanzarote

LANZAROTE must reduce its dependence on low-spending British visitors and move towards a “higher quality” tourism market model, the island’s president has said.

María Dolores Corujo, the Lanzarote government leader, singled out German holidaymakers as the ideal visitor to attract in order for the Canary Island package holiday hotspot to diversify its tourism sector.

“It’s essential to work on the diversification of the sector and the growth of markets like the German market, which adapt to our intentions of aiming at higher-quality tourism and holidaymakers who spend more when they’re here and move us away from mass tourism,” Ms Corujo said at this week’s ITB Berlin travel industry fair.

While British tourists are drawn to all-year sunshine and low-cost beach holidays in the Spanish Atlantic outpost, Ms Corujo said the island’s tourism strategy needed to be “sustainability and excellence”.

It comes a month after she said Lanzarote needed to “reduce our dependence on the British market”.

But some industry figures are not happy. Daniel Trigg of the Lanzarote Business and Residents Association said he was concerned by the idea of a backlash against traditional holidaymakers and the impression that “Lanzarote does not want British and Irish tourists”.