Just as Mamma Mia benefited the tourist trade on the Greek Island of Skopelos Broken Embraces is expected to ignite interest in the most easterly Canary Island of Lanzarote.  Already a popular holiday destination attracting over one million British and Irish tourists during the course of 2008.

 So what sort of holiday experience can first time visitors to the island expect?

Weather & Climate

Lanzarote enjoys a great year round climate with temperatures rarely falling below 20 Celsius – even during the winter months.  With temperatures reaching 27 Celsius on average across the summer months. Rainfall is also very low – averaging out at less than 1cm a month.

Accommodation

There are some high quality hotels in Lanzarote – the bulk of which are located in and around the island’s southern most resort of Playa Blanca.  The five star Gran Melia Volcan, located next to the Marina Rubicon development offers the sort of luxury film stars would be accustomed too.

 But there’s also a wide choice of good value four star establishments – such as the Hesperia Playa Dorada, Princess Yaiza and Lanzarote Princess.  Where room rates start from a more reasonable €85 per night.

Arriving in Lanzarote

Flights to Lanzarote last a bearable four hours – and as the island is also quite small, just 58km by 34km, transfer times are also minimal.  The oldest and most popular resort of Puerto del Carmen for example is just ten minutes from the islands main airport.

Exploring Lanzarote

These same dimensions also make Lanzarote very easy to explore.  Aided by the fact that both car hire and petrol are also very reasonably priced.  With car hire rates starting from around €20 per day.

Key Attractions

Lanzarote boasts a set of unique tourist attractions which were developed under the aegis of the island born artist Cesar Manrique.  A number of these feature in the new Almodovar movie – such as the giant wind toy Phobos, located just outside the Cesar Manrique Foundation in Tahiche.

 Some of the islands natural beauty spots – such as the breathtaking beach at Famara and the famous green lagoon at El Golfo also play a starring role.

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 Lanzarote´s popularity as a year round holiday destination has been further reinforced by the release of these latest figures from AENA.  Which indicate that total foreign tourism to the island is up for the year to date, with a total of 1,341,556 foreign nationals arriving on flights to Lanzarote across the period January to October 2008.  

 News that confounds media speculation that the credit crunch could spell the end for holidays abroad.  Whilst also making happy reading for the owners of apartments and holiday villas in Lanzarote.

 British tourists continue to lead the way, accounting for well over 50% of all visits by foreign nationals.  

 But consumers from Eire are also reluctant to relinquish their holidays abroad.  With AENA´s figures revealing that 186,759 tourist from the Republic have visited Lanzarote across the first ten months of 2008.  An increase of 1.39% versus 2007. So further cementing Lanzarote´s position as the most popular destination for Irish tourists in the whole of Spain.

 Significant increases in visitor numbers have also been recorded in the main Scandinavian markets.  Which was once a major supplier of visitors for Lanzarote back in the days when tourism was first taking off in the 1970´s and 80´s.  With Swedish visitor numbers up by 35.07% year on year, followed by Norway (up 19.6%) and Finland (up 14.33%).

 One negative note sounded by the latest AENA figures is that German tourism to the island continues to fall.  Down by 13.23% to 226,088 visits, maintaining a longer term pattern of decline as German visitors desert Lanzarote in favour of other, newer holiday destinations, such as Egypt and Turkey.

 That being said Germany remains the second largest tourist market for the island and local tourist authorities are hoping to reverse this trend with a multi million euro marketing campaign designed to woo back the missing German guests.  And overall the AENA figures illustrate the continued buoyancy of Lanzarote´s key tourist industry – despite the credit crunch, falling pound and failing airlines.

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 Kiss Flights have been formed by Gatwick based aviation brokers Meridian Aviation.  And will be offering flights to Lanzarote from May 1^st 2009.  With prices starting from around £200 return. Initially the service will depart every Thursday from Gatwick at 05.00, arriving at Arrecife airport at 09.00.  With return flights leaving Arrecife airport at 10.05.  With price discounts offered for early bookings.

 The new company has links  - in the form of senior management personnel – to the former flight arm of XL Holidays – Freedom Flights – which collapsed earlier this year.  This new operation is ATOL bonded – initially for 25,000 flight seats – and expect this figure to rise quickly as business increases.

 The links to XL are further heightened by the fact that Kiss Flights will be servicing the same destinations as Freedom.  Including Red Sea Resorts, Turkey, Cyrpus, Tenerife and Lanzarote.

 According to the Kiss Flights website “We’ve chosen the most popular destinations including Egypt, Greece, Turkey and the Canary Islands specifically for the independent travel trade and with the dynamic packaging market firmly in mind.”

The company will be leasing two Boeing 737´s for the new service from Swedish based Viking Air.

 The announcement provides a further boost for Lanzarote´s tourist industry.  Which remains buoyant despite the current bleak economic outlook.  With British visitor numbers up 6.42% for the year to date versus 2007 and Irish visitor numbers also on the rise.  According to recently released figures from AENA, the Spanish airport authority.

 Owners of villas and holiday apartments in Lanzarote are expected to be amongst the main beneficiaries of this increased level of demand.  As the island hotels can only accommodate around one third of Lanzarote´s total tourist capacity if 65,000 beds at any one time.  With the slack picked up by apartment complexes and privately owned holiday properties.

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Holiday Accommodation in Lanzarote

Tourists seeking a holiday apartment in Lanzarote are spoilt for choice. As the island boasts over two hundred complexes in all of the main resorts.

Puerto del Carmen offers the highest concentration – as the island most popular resort was specifically developed with apartment holidays at the fore of the blueprint. As a result prices remain reasonably competitive, with a typical weeks stay starting from around £250 for a standard one bedroom or studio apartment. Given the abundance of cheap flights to Lanzarote with operators such as easyJet, Thomas Cook and Monarch that makes a weeks stay in the sun possible all year round from as little as £300 per person.

Playa Blanca is the best resort for those seeking more upmarket accommodation.. As this former fishing village at the southern tip of the island is home to the most modern and well appointed selection of holiday villas in Lanzarote. Prices here reflect that – as standard villas with private pools start from around £500 per week.

Playa Blanca is also home to the best selection of four and five star hotels in Lanzarote. As the resort was the most recently developed on the island, so delivering a wide range of popular, modern establishments such as the Princesa Yaiza and the newly opened Papagayo Arena.

Lanzarote isn´t all just about beaches and sunshine though. And anyone in search of a more cultural twist to their holiday should head for the resort of Costa Teguise in the north of the island. Which makes an ideal base for touring the Lanzarote´s key attractions – most of which were developed under the aegis of the island born artist and architect Cesar Manrique.

Hail Cesar

Manrique is the man responsible for ensuring that his beloved island was saved from over development during the boom years of package tourism in the 1970´s.

“I believe that we are witnessing an historic moment,” Manrique stated, in response to the potential threat of mass-market tourism; “where the huge danger to the environment is so evident that we must conceive a new responsibility with respect to the future”.

At the time, this sort of ecological approach was quite revolutionary – as high-rise holiday apartments, hotels and water parks were being thrown up with abandon along the Costas and on other Canary Islands.

Manrique however illuminated an alterative path for development on the island. By creating a unique set of tourist attractions that worked with nature, rather than against it. And his key works such as the Jameos del Agua and the Mirador del Rio remain the backbone of the islands tourist industry today.

As a result of his efforts Lanzarote was the first island in the world to be declared a UNESCO protected biosphere in 1994.

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