The increases for the Canary Islands are as follows:
Gran Canaria +0,51%
Tenerife South (Reina Sofia) +0,69%
Tenerife Norte (Los Rodeos) +2,40%
Fuerteventura +2,40%
Lanzarote +2,40%
La Palma +1,75%
El Hierro +0.63%
La Gomera +0.63%

Taken from this page.

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So far this year, statistics provided by AENA show that 3,648,225 foreign passengers visited the islands, which is a decrease of 114,310 tourists (-3.04%) compared to the same period in 2011.

Fuerteventura is the only island with positive figures, seeing an increase of 20.24% in foreign visitor arrivals.

The Deputy Minister of Tourism of the Canary Islands, Ricardo Fernandez de la Puente, said in a statement that “this drop in tourism was predictable given the behavior of the international economy and its impact on the tourism industry”.

Comparing March 2012 figures with those of February (2012), property sales fell by 17.2%, according to figures recently released by the National Statistics Institute (INE). For the previous year of 2011, as a whole, property sales were down 17.7% when compared to 2010, which had seen a rise of 6.3% compared to 2009.

Property sales are far below the ‘boom’ period when property transactions reached 80,000 per month, despite the reduction of tax on new housing from 8% to 4%. New property sales fell by 24.3%, to 12,209 units, while the second hand market fell by 21.3%, to 13,255 transactions.

The first event took place in the area of Barranquillo de Andres in Mogan. At 12.48 hours, the 112 emnergency services were alerted that a group of British hikers between 61 and 78 years suffered from health problems related to the extreme temperatures. When medical personnel arrived on the scene most elderly of the hikers, a woman aged 78, had experienced a cardiac arrest. After a period of attempting resuscitation she was pronounced dead. One of her colleagues, who suffered a heat stroke was a 66 year old woman who was later taken by helicopter and admitted to the Hospital de Gran Canaria Dr. Negrin where she was admitted in critical condition.

A helicopter was also used to transport a third 65 year old hiker who had respiratory failure and was admitted to the same hospital in a critical condition. The other hikers, four British tourists between 61 and 69, were attended to by medical personnel at the scene.

Shortly afterwards, at around 15.00 the emergency services received a call from a hiker who said that his companion had fallen down the Barranco de Azuaje, also o nthe island of Gran Canaria. They were two related British tourists, who had taken a route through this ravine where they planned to stay overnight in the Fontanales area. The emergency services informed the Moya local police that they had difficulty finding the people because they had not properly informed of their location. Finally, the rescue helicopter which had arrived from Tenerife spotted them and was able to rescue the hiker.

The data from the whole of Spain reflect a satisfactory decrease of 1.9% of criminal offences recorded in the first quarter of this year, but unfortunately the Canaries presents a global rise of 3.2% which is the second worst result of the country.

These figures are blamed on the increased pressure caused by the economic crisis and an unemployment rate of almost 32% along with the fact that the Canaries climate means the islands are a vulnerable place for most of the year because the weather encourages people to leave terrace doors or windows open.

This is leading to a feeling of insecurity spreading widely among the residents of the islands and are leading to continuous complaints from traders and businessmen from the South of Tenerife, particularly between residential areas close to large urban center comprising the capital, La Laguna, and Candelaria areas or Radazul.

Despite this new record revenue in the first quarter there were 166,259 employees related to tourism in the Canaries, which represents the loss of about 3,400 jobs (-2%) compared to the same period of 2011, as indicated in the latest report from the Ministry of Tourism.

The inaugural flight landed yesterday morning with the presence of a number of the islands authorities and Iberia Express’ Commercial Director, Silvia Mosquera.

Ms. Mosquera stressed in a statement “the importance of the new route to Lanzarote and pointed out that in May, the airline will also be flying to Menorca, Granada, Vigo and Ibiza”.

Silvia Mosquera also highlighted the values ​​that underpin Iberia Express, which offers quality and affordable prices. Flying from Madrid to Lanzarote will cost from €97.

Iberia Express, which operates short and medium routes, expects to close 2012 with flights to 20 destinations, a fleet of 14 aircraft and employ 500 people.

2011 was a record year for tourist arrivals to the Canary Islands exceeding 12 million visitors. The airlines also enjoyed the air tax bonuses offered by the government (which was stopped for this year, 2012). The regional government insists that these bonuses led to the arrival of 1.5 million additional passengers in 2011 (a 15% growth) and the creation of 70 new routes for the Canary Islands.

Four of the eight Canarian airports had positive results last year (2011): Tenerife South (€24.9 million), Gran Canaria, (€22.33 million), Lanzarote (€8.67 million) and Fuerteventura (€1.21 million). The airport that received more income when compared to 2010 was Gran Canaria, with a growth of 49.6%.

Tenerife closed their accounts with a net profit of 41.93% over 2010. Lanzarote also experienced significant growth, increasing its profits by 42.59%. However, Fuerteventura suffered a drop in performance of 27.97% compared to 2010, dropping from €1.68 to €1.21 million net profit.

La Palma’s airport recorded the most negative balance, with losses of €14.67 million euros, down 37.10% compared with 2010, followed by Tenerife North, whose losses (after taxes) have risen by 42.54% compared to 2010, to €6.60 million.

The low profit margins have forced operators to consider reducing non-hotel accommodation by around 30% for next winters season.

The major British tour operators plan to terminate their contracts with many of the non-hotel accommodation suppliers next winter. The main reason for this expected cut in the bookings of apartment accommodation is in the shrinking profit margin generated by the apartments for the large operators such as Thomas Cook and Tui.

Operators claim that say that “apartments that are rented for between €25 and €30 only generate a commission of $3 to $5, even less when you take into consideraation the development of the brochuresm commissions for the travel agents, etc…”.

In the Canary Islands there are 20,400 more people unemployed in the firs quarter of 2012, an increase of 5.98%, bringing the total amount of people without work to 362,300 according to data released today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The Canary Islands have been confirmed as the second region with more unemployed people in the country, after Andalucia, which has 33.17% unemployed, almost 8% above the national average of 24.44%. By gender, unemployment now affects 30.51% of males of working age and 34.35% of women in the Canary Islands.
By provinces, Las Palmas has 192,800 unemployed people, 33.75% of the workforce and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, there are 169,500 unemployed people, which represents 30.75%.

In Spain unemployment grew in the first quarter by 6.94% to bring the total unemployment to 5,639,500 which represents 24.44%. Figures show that unemployment in Spain has grown in the last year by 14.85% after the destruction of 718,500 jobs.

Immigrants moved to Europe either through the border between Turkey and Greece in truck cargo containers or by plane with forged passports and tickets purchased illegally.

22 people have been arrested so far, among them the head of the organisation, who dealt with entire families in exchange for €20,000 per smuggled person with minors receiving a ‘discount’ and children under 2 were smuggled for ‘free’.

The Canary Islands served as a stop-off point, where immigrants were taught how to conduct themselves at the border on arrival in Britain and how to get legal residency.

The operation began last February when an the arrest of a citizen of Iranian origin took place in Tenerife, who tried to board a flight to the UK, carrying passports and a fake French identity card. It was determined that it was not an isolated event, but there was an organisation dedicated to the forgery and the illegal trade in Iranian citizens.

The result of the preliminary investigations determined that the criminal organisation had numerous members not only in Spain, but also in Iran, Greece, Germany and Sweden.

The police officers identified the chief and ringleader of the plot, who directed and coordinated all actions from Tenerife.