Can the Canary Islands be the new Hawaii for Americans?

A few weeks ago we reported the news that the Canary Islands, and especially June 2nd 2022 when the Tenerife South airport connects three times a week with the most important city in the United States. In an interview with Tourinews.es, tourism advisor, Ángel Bernabé explained that “establishing this new connection is the result of intense work, and expanding markets is always an objective of the tourist boards of each island.”

Bernabé believes that this is a very good opportunity for the Canarian archipelago to open up to a large market with great purchasing power. "The islands can be the new Hawaii," he said, adding that, for him, “the key to success is during the first few months that the route is operated. American tourists must have an ‘extraordinary’ experience as this will lead to more and more bookings called the contagion effect”.

“The North American market is very large and could be an important route for the Canary Islands. Scheduling flights is the first step, but then full packages have to come, and it has to work so that it can continue for a longer time than in the past".

Bernabé also gives the Russian market as an example. "Before there was no connectivity with Russia from the Canary Islands, until one fine day, a hotelier travelled to Russia and started working with Russian and Baltic tour operators and travel agencies, finally putting on a flight. Another flight came from that flight and in the end, it went from being a non-existent market to having around 400,000 Russians at its highest point in the Canary Islands".

Russian tourists also have high purchasing power and this similarity is perfectly exportable to the American market. "There is a lot of money there, but we are great strangers to them. We can be the new Hawaii and, in fact, are closer geographically to most Americans, and they love Europeans."