Lanzarote – full to bursting

There are more people on Lanzarote than ever before. Can the island continue to cope?

Last December, Lanzarote was probably fuller than it has ever been in its history. A record year for tourism was capped by a Christmas season that saw almost a third of a million (326,827) people arrive on the island, 159,500 of whom were British holiday-makers.

That’s in addition to the 163,467 residents who actually live here – another record figure that has leapt by 4,000 from 2023. Lanzarote’s population tripled in the last 40 years and at the current rate of population increase, it could double again by 2060.

The island is likely to be almost as full again in the months of March and April, as St Patricks Day, carnival and the Easter holidays arrive. And while business is booming and unemployment is low, there remain increasing concerns about who is benefiting and how the island can continue to cope with so many people in such as small space.

The pressure has already been seen in a housing crisis that is exacerbated by low wages, the disastrous state of the island’s water system, and environmental damage. It is increasingly difficult to park in many towns and resorts, and inadequate public transport has done little to change an island that has a higher ratio of cars to people than Barcelona.

At Gazette Life, when we publish news of car accidents, mountain rescues, petty crime or other issues on our website, we often receive comments asking “This is getting more frequent. What is happening?”, as if there were some special factors involved.

Occasionally there are, but the answer in most cases is just the simple fact that there are more people on the island. That means there are more cars making more journeys, more people straying off the beaten path, more opportunities for crime, more stuff happening.

Two years ago, the then-President of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, received criticism for declaring that Lanzarote was “saturated”. However, her opponents claimed that her words would discourage visitors from coming to the island. More recently, similar warnings have been levelled at last year’s protests against the effects of mass tourism.

But the tourists have not been discouraged: they keep coming in greater numbers than ever. And the policies of the authorities remain more or less the same as they have been for decades. Attempts to diversify the model of tourism have had some success, but the basic idea of packing them in hasn’t changed.

This month, Lanzarote will welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors, and despite the nonsense that was printed about last year’s protests, the word “welcome” will remain appropriate. But there is also deep dissatisfaction.