The occupation figures for holiday rentals in the Canary Islands, Spain's popular destination for winter sun, are situated between 70 and 80% at the start of 2022, as announced by Javier Valentín, vice president of the Canarian Association of Holiday Homes (Asociación Canaria del Alquiler Vacacional).
According to a declaration published in an article in COPE Canarias, these figures are reminiscent of pre-covid figures, which is surprising, as Spain is currently registering a high number of new Covid cases, due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
“In effect, this winter campaign is being unusual for homes because, although we maintain good figures, it is true that there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the cancellation of tourist forecasts for January and February. That is why they are canceling, due to the uncertainty that also exists in the rest of Europe”.
Javier Valentín: “In terms of occupancy we are at around 80% and when talking about isolated houses with swimming pools the occupation is almost 100%. But the forecast is that it will remain at 70-80% occupancy. Until March we are experiencing uncertainty due to the parameters of the covid that are being experienced in the rest of Europe."
The Vice President of the Asociación Canaria del Alquiler Vacacional also criticized the authorities for not helping the holiday homes owners with financial aid during the pandemic period, when many of them have had no income, as there were no tourists in the archipelago for a long period of time.
According to the association, most of the current visitors who rent holiday homes in the Canary Islands come from the Nordic countries and a large percentage of them are remote workers or digital nomads, who spend between 2 or 3 months in the archipelago, combining work and travel, while still enjoying the warm winter climate of the islands.