Yzabelle Bostyn
BRITS are turning away from Spain’s main tourism islands- new figures show.
Tenerife’s tourism sector is sounding the alarm after bookings from British tourists went down 8% in the first trimester of 2025.
Santiago Sese, president of the island’s commerce board announced the concerning trend as part of Tenerife’s 2025 Economic Bulletin.
READ MORE: British tourists to Spain accounted for one in five in April as tourism boom continues
PHOTO: Cordon Press
Experts believe Brits are instead opting for other holiday destinations like Turkey, Greece and Egypt.
It comes after historic anti-tourism protests all over Spain last weekend, provoking Tenerife’s tourism minister, Lope Afonso, to announce collaboration with the protest group Canarias tiene un limite (The Canary Islands Have a Limit).
They will reportedly work together to find a ‘balance’ between the tourism industry and the wellbeing of locals, including solving key issues like access to affordable housing.
Afonso hopes to move towards more sustainable tourism for the environment, the economy and the local community.
READ MORE: ‘Historic’ anti-tourism marches see hundreds of thousands protest across Spain
“We need to maintain Tenerife’s reputation as a tourist destination,” he said.
“It’s essential to work on becoming a more sustainable destination with a reliable market because if prices start to fall, profitability goes down and so will the number of jobs. We’d be shooting ourselves in the foot.”
A key issue, says Sese, is that while the number of international tourists continues to rise (by 3.4%) , their average spend has decreased.
However, the number of Spanish tourists in Tenerife has decreased in the first few months of 2025, falling by 10%.
According to Sese, tourism is part of the ‘solution’ to the island’s problems, accounting for 35% of the GDP and 40% of jobs.
“Without businesses there’s no jobs and without jobs people don’t consume. If no one consumes there’s no resources to maintain public services,” he said.
READ MORE: Mallorca sends four-word message to tourists amid tourismophobia fears
