canary islands hotels imserso programme overhaul

Canary Islands hotels demand Imserso overhaul

Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.

The Imserso programme has reached breaking point. Canary Islands hotels say the numbers no longer add up and are calling for an overhaul of the scheme’s conditions. Their demands come at a time when the islands’ tourism sector is chaining together records for prices, revenue and profitability.

A programme born in 1985

It was 1985 when the Imserso holidays for older people were launched under the socialist government of Felipe González. At the time, thousands of pensioners could benefit from the Imserso Holidays for Older People Programme, which offered 16,000 places in hotels in Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands) and Benidorm (Valencian Community), for stays of 15 days for less than 20,000 pesetas, around 120 euros.

Seven years later, high demand for island destinations led to the Canary Islands being included in the official holiday offer, and in 1997 the first trip to the archipelago took place.

Active ageing and tackling seasonality

The objectives were clear. First, to encourage active ageing, improve the physical and psychological wellbeing of older people, prevent situations of dependency and combat loneliness. These stays were also intended to make travel accessible to pensioners who until then had never had the opportunity to do so.

The second objective was to tackle seasonality. To ensure the islands did not depend solely on the busiest months and that activity in hotels, shops and other services was maintained throughout the year. In recent years, that has been one of the sector’s main lines of work. And the data is beginning to sketch out that shift in the tourism calendar. September, one of the months that traditionally marked the end of the domestic high season, is attracting more and more visitors. This year, 22,297 more tourists arrived than in September 2025. In August, the increase was 18,917 travellers.

Since then, the cycle has repeated itself every year, except in 2020 because of the pandemic. But now the problem is a different one.

Hotels say 30 euros a day is not enough

Hotels signed up to the programme say their revenue does not exceed 30 euros per person per day, an amount that Juan Pablo González, manager of the hotel association Ashotel, considers insufficient to cover current costs. The businessman points out that a study by the University of Alicante puts the price needed to cover the costs of the service at at least 35 euros plus VAT. “Not even then would it be profitable for the establishments,” he adds.

The problem is that this complaint comes at a time when the Canary Islands hotel sector is enjoying one of its best economic moments. In May of this year, hotels in the islands reached their best-ever figure for profitability, with revenue of up to 93 euros per available room, 4% more than in 2025. And that same year they closed the financial year with the highest prices in their history: 166 euros per night, the highest average rate in Spain, according to the Cushman Wakefield report based on STR data.

Clash with the international high season

On top of the sector’s economic situation is the islands’ own tourism idiosyncrasy. The Imserso scheme operates between September and May, precisely when the Canary Islands receives a large share of its international visitors. That is when hotels have the chance to accommodate foreign tourists who pay higher rates for their holiday packages.

“That is when we receive tourists of different foreign nationalities who pay for various holiday packages, obviously at other prices,” explains González. The consequence, according to the Ashotel manager, is that fewer and fewer establishments are willing to take part in the programme. The reduction in supply contrasts with demand that remains high. The Canary Islands has around 87,000 places for the entire period of the programme, but many pensioners are left out. “The Canary Islands lot is one of the most in demand, along with the Balearic Islands,” González notes.

In fact, the first days of bookings have already left some islands sold out and strong demand at agencies in various autonomous communities.

A changing user profile

Even so, he stresses that it is not only supply that has changed, but also the profile of those using the programme. The employers’ association manager maintains that some of today’s beneficiaries have greater financial means than the users for whom it was originally conceived: “It is no longer that man who had never left his village,” he explains. “We are finding people who are self-employed professionals, executives, workers and so on, who have a higher income level than our grandparents had. Some of these users take advantage of the programme’s subsidised prices, but then do not make use of all the services associated with the stay.”

He gives the example of pensioners who arrive in the Canary Islands, hire a car and spend much of their holiday outside the hotel.

More tourists, but where does the money go?

That overlap in timing between the Imserso scheme and the arrival of international tourists that González describes occurs in a period when the Canary Islands receives more visitors than during the summer season. Between September and May, 5% more tourists arrive in the archipelago than during the summer months, according to data compiled by ISTAC.

This is precisely the result of the deseasonalisation process the tourism sector was aiming for. But the fact that there are more tourists and that hotels maintain greater activity during those months does not necessarily mean that this growth translates into greater spending across the islands’ economy as a whole. How visitors distribute their budget also matters. Tourists who concentrate a greater share of their spending on accommodation leave less room for that money to reach other businesses.

In the case of all-inclusive packages, as much as 82.5% of the visitor’s budget stays in the hotel itself. By contrast, holiday rental tourists spend around 46% of their budget outside their accommodation. This means that, although they spend less money in total, they distribute their spending more directly in local supermarkets, car hire firms, cafés and restaurants in the towns.

What is more, the tourism landscape has changed. Foreign tourists have increased their stay in holiday rentals, displacing part of the demand that traditionally stayed in hotels and turning the archipelago into the fourth European region with the most overnight stays in tourist apartments. This growth is occurring against a backdrop of strong pressure on housing.

Social tourism and the jobs question

For González, this situation raises a fundamental question about the programme’s very design: “It must be understood that this is a social tourism programme,” he says, whose aim is to make holidays easier for those who could not enjoy them at the time and, in certain territories, to help maintain employment. “But in the case of the islands, that is not the case,” he says. “In the Canary Islands, the Imserso scheme does not help maintain employment, since hotels remain open thanks, in large part, to the arrival of millions of European tourists during those months.”

However, in a report on how the Imserso scheme operates, the organisation estimated that 12,000 jobs were linked to hotels that kept operating thanks to the programme.

Against this backdrop, Ashotel is calling for a distinction between two formats: one in line with the original concept of social tourism and another aimed at users with greater financial means, which could incorporate certain additional services and benefits. It also criticises the fact that establishments’ costs have changed substantially: “They have risen by more than 30% in recent years and the programme has stayed exactly the same,” González insists.

The hotelier considers the establishment to be “the last link in the chain”, after the companies awarded the various lots in the tender. He therefore calls for the programme’s review to take into account the full cost structure and the real margin of the hotels that ultimately provide the service.

Record figures for the sector overall

Across the Canary Islands’ hotel sector as a whole, however, activity has been trending upwards. During 2025, hotels and apartments in the Canary Islands took 6.5% more than in 2024. Turnover reached 5,929.4 million euros. The figure places the Canary Islands among the destinations with the highest hotel profitability and is equivalent to 21,200 euros of gross operating profit per room during that financial year.

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