canary islands tourism arrivals february 2026 data

Canary Islands Lead Spain’s Tourism Despite Global Tensions

Canary Islands Maintain Tourism Strength Amid Global Uncertainty

With just over a month to go until the end of its peak tourist season (October-April), the Canary Islands destination continues to demonstrate its power and resilience. This is now the case for more than three consecutive years. The steady stream of foreign visitors to the archipelago has continued unabated into the first two months of 2026, with consecutive increases, and this is without yet seeing any impact—for better or worse—from the US and Israeli invasion of Iran that began on 28 February.

Record Arrivals in February and Year-to-Date

In the most recent month analysed, February, arrivals increased by 3.3% compared to the same period in 2025 (2.8% for Spain as a whole), reaching an absolute figure of almost 1.5 million foreign tourists. With this number, the cumulative total for the year—the first two months of 2026—is 4.1% higher than in 2025. This brings the influx of visitors from outside Spain to 2.9 million, meaning 119,727 more people in just the first two months of the year; this, of course, was before the new Middle East conflict. If this pace is maintained—something that remains to be seen in an increasingly difficult international climate—2026 will also be a record year.

Top Destination for International Visitors

In February, the most recent month with foreign tourism arrival data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) this Tuesday via its Frontier Tourism Movements (Frontur) statistics, the Canary Islands was the leading main destination for this segment. The islands captured 26.8% of the national total. They were followed by Catalonia (21.3%) and Andalusia (14.1%). In the cumulative total for the first two months of 2026, the autonomous communities that welcomed the most tourists were the Canary Islands, with 2.9 million and a 4.1% increase; Catalonia, with 2.2 million and a 0.9% drop; and Andalusia, with 1.5 million and 2.4% more.

Tourist Spending: A Mixed Picture

Regarding total expenditure by international tourists visiting Spain in February, figures also published by the INE this Tuesday from its Tourist Expenditure Survey (Egatur), the country reached €7,606 million. This represents a 4.6% increase compared to the same month in 2025. In relation to the autonomous communities with the greatest share of tourist spending in February, the Canary Islands accounted for 29.2% of the national total; Catalonia, 18%; and the Community of Madrid, 15.3%.

However, tourist spending fell by 1.6% year-on-year in the Canary Islands compared to February 2025. It increased by 18.7% in Catalonia and 1.9% in the Community of Madrid. The tourist expenditure that the Egatur survey assigns to the Canary Islands in February amounts to €2,221 million—the highest in Spain by autonomous community (peak season in the islands)—a figure that is 1.6% lower than the same month the previous year.

Shorter Stays Offset Higher Daily Spend

This variable, which should not be confused with the income earned in the islands from tourism activity, decreased in February 2026 due to a pronounced fall in the average stay of foreign tourists. This dropped to 7.5 days, a 12.6% shorter trip duration compared to the same period in 2025. It is important to note that the average tourist expenditure per day per person continued to rise, with an 8.9% year-on-year increase.

The behaviour of this last figure explains that the reason for the drop in absolute tourist spending in February is primarily linked to the shorter average duration of the tourist’s stay in their chosen destination—in this case, the Canary Islands.

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