Online travel agency lastminute.com reports a spike in bookings for the Canary Islands, after the destination was approved for quarantine-free travel last week.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed on October 22 that the Spanish island group had been added to the government’s safe list alongside the Maldives, Denmark and Mykonos.
Over the four-day period of October 22-25, lastminute.com said that bookings increased by 4,700% for Gran Canaria, compared to the previous four days, “with the other islands seeing similarly huge spikes”.
Tenerife (pictured) saw bookings rise 893%, while searches soared by 920%; Lanzarote bookings were up 3,050% and searches increased by 1,093%; and for Fuerteventura, bookings rose by 1,800% while searches were up by 923%.
Furthermore, 92% of Lanzarote and 42% of Tenerife bookings are departing within the next seven days, the OTA said on Tuesday (October 27).
Its experience echoes the surge in bookings seen elsewhere, such as Jet2holidays, which booked more than 5,500 holidays to the Canaries within hours of the government granting the travel corridor.
More: Jet2holidays sold 5,500 Canaries holidays ‘within hours’ of travel corridor