Tenerife, 'Second Best Destination In The World'- Attracting New Air Routes

The 350 airlines that attend the World Routes Development Forum (Routes), which takes place, have once again honored Tenerife as the second best destination in the world in attracting new routes. The island ranked second behind the Canary Islands and ahead of other major destinations such as Madrid, Malta, the Philippines and Ireland.

The president of the Cabildo, Carlos Alonso, emphasizes that this important recognition "endorses the work carried out for many years by the Cabildo, through Tenerife Tourism, to achieve greater air connectivity with the outside, which is one of our main priorities.”

Alonso says that during these days the island has held meetings with leading airlines in the world such as Lufthansa, British Airways, Transavia, Ryanair or Norwegian to define new connections with major markets for Tenerife such as the British or French. "We are still working to get the connection with the United States, which is a goal we have been pursuing for quite some time."

For his part, the island's tourism adviser, Alberto Bernabé, points out that the fact that Tenerife regains this recognition is "a stimulus to continue working along the same lines as before". Bernabé recalls that Tenerife is connected "with 125 destinations -16 from the airport of Tenerife North and 109 from Tenerife South, corresponding to 25 countries, and day by day we continue to strive to expand routes, destinations and frequencies.

Routes already awarded the island in 2013 as the second best destination in the world and the first in Europe in capturing air connections. The following year it returned to obtain two more: second best destination of the world and of Europe, respectively, in the same category. This year, in addition, the person in charge of Outstanding Tourism Promotion of Tenerife, Stephanie Wear, has been nominated also as finalist in the individual category.

Headquarters of Routes Africa 2016

The work in connectivity of the Island underwent an important impetus with the organization of the Routes Africa 2016 event. The event was organized by the Cabildo through Turismo de Tenerife and brought together about two hundred industry professionals, among them presidents and senior managers of airlines and airports with interest or presence in the African continent.

The organization of this meeting was framed in the challenge of the insular institution to turn Tenerife into a tricontinental hub between Europe, Africa and America, taking advantage of its geographical position and infrastructures. In this way, the forum allowed, on the one hand, to deepen the opportunities of Africa for Spanish and international investments where the Canary Islands act as a business center and a gateway for logistics to this continent. On the other, it served, with the attendance of the main operators of air transport in the Island, to evaluate and to obtain new projects of collaboration and development between Europe, Africa and America.